“It is not a question of God
sending us to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will be hell unless it is nipped in the bud...
hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others.”
— C.S. Lewis (1898–1963)
The stuff we are made of isn’t
very good. Our mortal material, the flesh of our bones, and what that
symbolises, is the source of destruction. We are impacted whether we like it or
not, as we impact each other detrimentally it seems.
We are destined for a self-sourced
hell if that be our will, because our will is in opposition to God’s. Without a
stringent effort to strain forward—an ambitious focus on God alone—we have no
hope. But in straining forward we are, at the same time, trusting God through
our surrender:
Grumbling,
complaining, and blaming are no longer to be part of our agenda.
What Lies Beyond the Self-Sourced Hell
Experience
If we can agree for a moment that hell
is a self-sourced reality—as we willingly, or in deception, turn away from God—we
have a way of negating such a reality.
As I’ve mentioned, we must
undertake upon our daily relationship with the Lord our God. If we do not
undertake, if we do not focus, we cannot realise the vast potential that lies
within us as new creations in Jesus Christ.
This faith life—the life beyond
the self-sourced hell—is ever so simple.
But we mess it up in complications
of theological grandeur. We make God out to be hard to please, when in reality
the Lord simply wants us to understand that the most viable heaven-reality is
sourced in virtue: in being patient, kind, compassionate, humble, and full of
grace.
The only
way we grow in virtue is through practice.
Our only protection against this
festering reality that is a cancerous hell is the genuine acclamation of praise
afforded through the application of virtue.
And for it to be effective it must
be our sole aim: that we
would focus so much on our Lord that Fruits of the Spirit would emerge in
abundance.
In a heavily relational life we must
connect the dots; that our sins are resolved by the grace afforded us in
Christ’s sacrifice and in the Spiritual power made free so we could chase a
life of virtue with all we have.
***
What good is correct doctrine when
we cannot be free in the Lord?
Jesus died for our sins so that we
could, once and for all, focus on him who overcomes; who helps us overcome our
grumbling, complaining, and blaming.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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