A Waiting Room?...

When I was in highschool I came up with this analogy of life in the world. Basically it was that we were in a giant waiting room and a force was pushing us towards two doors. The waiting room is the world, the force is time, and the doors are heaven and hell. I thought it was a good analogy that I used in devotions and mini-sermons, things like that.

Today I watched Rob Bell's Nooma video 'Trees.' In this video he totally attacks the idea that this world is a waiting room. (He uses that exact phrase) He talks about a Christian radio personality who said that a Christian is someone who hopes and waits for the return of Jesus so that we can have a better life. But then Rob Bell talks about how Jesus wasn't a God of sitting around and waiting. He was a God of action, of bettering your life, of participating in a world that need aid and help and joy. It's not about waiting around to die. It's about doing it. (Just do it -Andrew Schey and Jacob Starkey)

The next thing I thought of was the Cole Bennett/C.S. Lewis idea of how heaven beginning now. The idea that heaven is not a place that we go in the future...but rather it's something that we are a part of right now. Jesus did say that the Kingdom of Heaven is here. But I thought of it because of Rob Bell's attack on the view of compartmentalizing our life. Meaning that we are in a part of our life and when it's over we will go to another place. That when we finally die, we leave behind this fallen place and go to a place that is perfect. That idea still seems great. It still seems wonderful. It makes me want to die right now and go to that place. But if I understand what Rob Bell is saying, it's not about the next life. It's not about getting everyone to believe the same thing I do so that we can go off to another place together. It's about the here and now. The service, the love, the joy, the action, the now.

I don't know if I believe Rob Bell. He's challenging me. And I like it.