I’m currently at work waiting for something to install and instead of working on my final exam for my MBA class, I decided to get something off my chest that I’ve been pondering for quite a while.

Heaven: what will it be like?

This is a question that has been pondered by both Christians and non-Christians alike.  The Bible mentions heaven a number of times.  The most famous, and probably the most familiar, verse, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”  Theologians have argued for centuries what this verse means.  There are also verses about heaven being a great banquet.

But somehow, I don’t think this really captures heaven.  Allow me to provide my version of what I think heaven will be like.

For all you Christians out there, this is meant to be a purely hypothetical exercise.  I have no Biblical bases for any of these ideas.  Let’s say this is kind of what I imagine it will be.  So please don’t leave comments about how much I’m wrong.  Allow me my imagination.

When I die, I imagine that I’ll be in some sort of line to check-in.  After all, there’s only one gate and they just can’t let anyone in there.  I’ll probably asked to submit some sort of proof of identification.  I’m sure that identity theft is pretty rampant there as it is here.  But unlike here, it’s 100% fool-proof.  I don’t think it will be long to check in.  After all, it is heaven.  I’m sure the weather will be quite pleasant.

After checking in and the bell-hop taking me to my new eternal house, he’ll give me a brochure with things to check out and upcoming events.  The one thing he tells me to do before I turn in for the night is to go to the new resident orientation.  “All of the frequently asked questions are answered there.”

I think there are standard questions that Christians want to ask God when they get to heaven.  Questions like “What really happened to the dinosaurs?” or “Can I see how you made the world in 6 days?”  And I’m sure at some point, God got tired of answering the same questions over and over again.  He’s a busy guy.

Anyway, the new resident orientation is held at the biggest IMAX theatre you could imagine.  But not so big your neck hurts but bigger than anything you’ve ever seen on this side of eternity.  A video plays with some famous celebrity that you didn’t know was a Christian comes on saying something like, “Welcome to eternity!  Now, you might think that’s a long time but with everything there is to do, it will feel like it just flew by!”

After the video answers the most common questions, you can ask the community liaison more specific questions, which she answers.  After that, you’re given the eternity card.  This card grants you access to the VIP sections of heaven.  (Not sure what makes it VIP if everyone gets the card.  But, hey, I’m not God.)

Next there are worship sessions and great sermons.  Everyone has the chance to sit down with God and Jesus.  And the rest of eternity is spent checking out all the things that are in heaven to do.

So, that’s kind of what I think will happen.  I know it sounds kind of silly, but hey.  It’s my imagination. 

In other words, if you’re not attracted to someone when you meet them, you may grow to accept them despite this.

This is actually not as horrifying as it sounds.  Put simply, Bob equated looks to any other quirk.  It is only the society at large puts a large value on looks that makes the evaluation much harder.  And I think this is something worth thinking about.

Ever since the dawn of time, looks and beauty have been coveted by society.  Open any magazine, watch any commercial and you will not find one unattractive person.  Heck, even Ugly Betty isn’t that ugly!  The story of the savior of the Jews was predicated on looks.  The Jewish people expected their savior to be a military ruler, not a carpenter born in a manger.

The difficult part of not judging a person by their looks is that we’ve been taught from a very early age that looks are important.  In school, we’re told to fit in.  Dress like other people to be accepted.  Don’t talk to strangers.  If someone looks dangerous, don’t go near them.  Stay away from sketchy neighborhoods.  All of these rules are predicated on looks, not content.

Unlike content or our personality, looks are immediate.  Men suck in their get when an attractive women walks by.  It’s like instinct.  Women check their make up before leaving the bathroom.  Yet I’m willing to bet that no one ever goes out of their way to change their personality.

I think the world’s obsession with looks says something very disturbing about our true nature.  Perhaps we hope that if we make the windows look nice, we won’t have to worry about the mess that’s inside the walls.  Or maybe if people notice how cool I look, they won’t ask me about the last time I talked with my parents.

If looks could tell a story, it would be probably be the opposite of what is really going on.  I think of looks could kill, they would kill the insecurity that every one of us holds deep in our souls.  The same insecurity that is responsible for using our looks as a crutch.

One of the questions I often ask new parents is have they figured out their baby’s cries.  For those of you who are not parents, let me explain this to you.  Since baby’s cannot form sentences until about age 2, their vocabulary is limited to laughs and cries.  That’s it.  Laughs are easy: you know the baby is having fun.  But cries is a whole other matter.

For a new parent, it’s incredibly frustrating to try to figure out what this tiny human wants from you.  Is she hungry?  Did she poo and need a change?  Is she tired?  Is she hot?  Cold?  WHAT IS IT?!  TELL ME ALREADY!

I digress…

Parents eventually figure out which cry means what.  It doesn’t come naturally.  It’s by trial and error.  And what most people do not realize is that faith is pretty much the same thing.

There are many Christians I know who are afraid to do the wrong thing.  “What if that’s not God’s will?” or “What if I do something wrong?”  The only way we learn how God speaks to us is by taking it in faith that God is guiding us.  If we get it wrong, God is sovereign enough to still be in control.  Learning to discern God’s voice among the millions of others is something that takes trial and effort.  It does not come naturally.

But like many new parents, God is incredibly patient.  He knows we won’t get it right the first time.  Or the 100th time.  But he knows our heart and desire is to do right by him.  I truly believe it is better for a Christian to be wrong by doing something than a Christian who does nothing for fear of being wrong.

English philosopher Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”  Being frozen in fear, afraid to do something wrong, is precisely what it means to do nothing.  For good men to succeed, they must be willing to take the risk, take the chance that they might fail.

It’s far better to have failed and gotten to know God better as a result, than do nothing and learn nothing from it.

The faith that children have in their adult caretakers is astounding.  This is easily proven when a child reminds you of a promise that you made several years prior, which you have no recollection of because you made the promise to get the child to do something.  And it’s amazing that children always find the must inopportune time to bring up these promises.

I think this speaks very loudly to the kind of faith God wants us to have with him.  A faith that simply believes that he will do what he promises.  A faith that never forgets.  A faith that is pure and simple.

Many of us fondly remember what it was like to be a kid and wish we could go back there.  None of the responsibility and all of the fun!  But we never remember the time-outs, the “go clean your room”, and the “no, you can’t have a cookie before dinner.”  I think it’s because they remind us that we still have to do those things…well, except the last one.  And yes mom, I still eat cookies before dinner!

We wish desperately to have the carefree attitude of a kid, but completely forgetting that it had it’s downsides.  But the amazing thing with God is that this carefree attitude is still available to Christians.  I truly believe that Christians who have a child-like faith live a carefree life simply because it would be a natural product of that faith.

Think about how often you worry about something or wondering what will happen.  So many times in our adult life, we are encouraged to trust God and to live the life of faith unleashed but don’t because we simply cannot see past our circumstances.  More often than not, it is our own view of God that hinders our relationship with him.  If we simply trusted God to love us, take care of us, knows what’s best for us — much like we did when we were kids — I think we would find ourselves in complete joy.

Yet, perhaps somewhat ironically, it is our childhood that inhibits this faith.  Many times our parents made promises that they couldn’t — or wouldn’t — keep.  Our teachers treated us unfairly.  The principal didn’t believe our story.  Today, many of us unfairly tribute these same characteristics to God.

Perhaps this is the best place to start.  Looking back on your life, seeing the places where the adults in your life failed, are you expecting that same result from God?  Is that what keeps you from having a child-like faith in him?

Please note that the book is now considered to be in public domain.  I’ve also truncated some of the text, but you can still read it in its entirety.

The husband of my former landlady in Hull was chief officer of a ship that sailed from London, and by receiving his half-pay monthly and remitting it to her I was able to save her the cost of a commission. This I had been doing for several months, when she wrote requesting that I would obtain the next payment as early as possible, as her rent was almost due, and she depended upon that sum to meet it. The request came at an inconvenient time. I was working hard for an examination in the hope of obtaining a scholarship which would be of service to me, and felt that I could ill afford the time to go during the busiest part of the day to the city and procure the money. I had, however, sufficient of my own in hand to enable me to send the required sum. I made the remittance therefore, purposing, as soon as the examination was over, to go and draw the regular allowance with which to refund myself.

Before the time of examination, I had an opportunity of going at once to the office and applying for the due amount.  To my surprise and dismay the cleric told me that he could not pay it, as the officer in question had run away from his ship and gone to the gold diggings. “Well,” I remarked, “that is very inconvenient for me, as I have already advanced the money, and I know his wife will have no means of repaying it.” The clerk said he was sorry, but could of course only act according to orders. A little more time and thought, however, brought the comforting conclusion to my mind, that as I was depending on the Lord for everything, and His means were not limited, it was a small matter to be brought a little sooner or later into the position of needing fresh supplies from Him; and so the joy and the peace were not long interfered with. (emphasis mine)

Last week, after looking over my finances, I realized I was in a very similar situation.  However my situation was due to my own mistakes and my own impatience.  I did not realize that I have overspent my budget for the last 3-4 months.  It only became clear to me when I realized that I simply did not have enough money to pay all my bills without going into debt.  I had come out of credit card debt almost a year ago and it is something that I am trying desperately to avoid.  The biggest culprit was my eating out.  I spent about $400 a month on eating out compared to about $50 in grocery shopping.  It doesn’t take a genius to realize that there is a serious mistake here.

As I read this chapter, I began to realize the simplicity of Hudson’s faith.  Despite having to pay for his medical school bills and having this captain leave his job to go gold digging, Hudson was filled with joy, simply because he could not wait to see how God was going to fulfill his promise.  He stood in anticipation because he was going to witness God at work.  Needless to say, this was not my reaction.  In fact, it was far from this.  My reaction was, “I wonder if God will come through.  It was my fault that I got in this mess.  How am I going to pay all my bills and still live?  Will I have to go into foreclosure since I couldn’t pay my mortgage?”

I paid my bills knowing full well that the bank would have to pull from my over-draft account.  I’ve done this before because my paycheck arrived a day after my bills were paid.  I didn’t see this as a big deal because I would pay the over-draft back, paying about 30-cents for the interest.  But this time, the interest would be much greater, and the wait would be much longer.  In order to break even, I’d need to wait for another paycheck.  To be honest, I didn’t pray about this issue.  My relationship with God has been thinned due to a lot of things going on in my family.  As I flirted with the prospect of asking my friends for help, I waited for my account to go into the red.

I looked at my account yesterday and saw that my account was still in the black.  Upon closer inspection, it turned out that my mortgage company did not cash my check.  I’ve been watching my checking account like a hawk the past two weeks, wondering when the shoe was going to drop.  When it still hadn’t been cashed, I decided to give them a call.

I tried calling them several times.  I went to their website to see if they got the check and simply didn’t cash it.  I saw a very ominous message on their front page.  It was very vague so I tried calling them again.  I figured they were having some sort of difficulty with the checks, which is why the phone was constantly busy.  I went to bed, not thinking much more about.

I opened the paper today and found that my mortgage company went bankrupt and is filing for Chapter 11.  I got their letter last night, read it briefly but went to bed soon after since I was so tired.  Now understanding what was happening, I re-read the letter.  “If your payment did not draft in the month of August it will be drafted by your new serving company by the end of the month.”  This meant that my check would be cashed at the end of the month, verses in the middle.  At the end of the month, I will have enough money to cover my mortgage!

The joy that overcame me brought me to tears and I realized that God was watching out for me.  Despite my disobedience, despite our lingering relationship, despite me NOT praying for him to provide, he did it anyway.

What a testament to God’s love!  What a testament to God’s sovereignty!  What a testament to a man who was had doubting God’s faithfulness, only to see that he was there all along.

Time is probably the most interesting gift God gives us.  If you think about it, it is an extremely finite resource.  Time is also the one thing we cannot control.  As much as we would like, we cannot turn back time, speed it up, or slow it down.  All of our days are numbered.  He knows to the microsecond when we will leave this world and enter the next.

Another interesting thing about time is that we cannot give our time to someone else: that is we cannot give someone two more weeks to live like we can give someone $200.  Time is measurable, but not tangible.  We cannot feel 30 minutes.  Of course, 30 minutes at the dentist’s office always feels longer than 30 minutes with great friends.  And no matter how much time you spend with them, it’s never enough.

I think too many people, Christians and those who aren’t, don’t see time in the way that God had intended.  Too quickly we say, “Oh, that’s something that I can do next week” or “I need to cancel because I need to do something else.”  Don’t get me wrong: there is responsibility when it comes to time management.

But I am suggesting is something far more simple.  Time is something we will never get back.  Unlike money, we can usually get a refund, earn more, and invest wisely (as far as God allows, of course).  When you look back on your day, how did you spend it?

Time is not something that we should throw away lightly.  It’s also something that we should joyfully share with others.  And when you do share it with others, make it meaningful.

After all, we only get once chance at it.  Make sure it matters.

If you follow me on twitter or on facebook, you may know that I suffered a back injury about a month ago.  It’s been difficult for me to stand or sit for long hours at a time.  But this injury has actually been one of the most interesting experiences in my life.  I’ve been getting regular cortisone-steroid shots directly into my spine.  I now know what it feels like to get an epidural!  Women, I do not envy you.

But mostly, I’ve enjoyed the human interaction I’ve been having with the various medical staff.  For the most part, these are people who I’ll only interact with for a brief moment in time.  I know nothing about them, except the fact that they work there.  I don’t know if they have kids, they are divorced, just committed a crime, what their favorite ice cream is…  All I know is that for the next 10-15 minutes, I will be sharing a moment in time with them.

It dawned on me several years ago that behind every face is a story.  Behind that story, are emotions that we might not be able to comprehend.  Behind those emotions is a person, who is enjoying or hating life.  This person has real issues, or maybe not.  Has two dogs, or maybe two birds.  Has got three kids, or maybe just two.  Is a single parent or struggling through a marriage.

The point of this is that for these 15 minutes, I have the opportunity to add to her problems and frustrations, or I can treat her like a human being, talk to her, and have her feel like she is the most important person in the world.

When you go to the check out counter, how often do you think about the cashier’s life, wondering if he just had a fight with his girlfriend about the dinner he made last night?  When he looks at you angry, do you get angry too?  See, the reality is that so many of us don’t see pass the nameless faces of the people we see that we assume that anything that they do to us is because of us when in reality, that’s not true.  The guy that cut you off isn’t crazy; he’s on his way to the hospital to see a new child into the world.

So many people want to change the world.  But rarely do these same people want to change their world.  I can’t begin to tell you how much a smile does to someone who’s working in McDonald’s.  Or how wonderful some one’s voice sounds when I genuinely ask someone, “How’s your shift going so far?  Has it been busy?”  And yes, I do actually do this.

My encouragement to all Christians is to stop acting like these people only exist in your life for 15 minutes.  My encouragement to those who aren’t Christians is also the same.  Let’s not change the world: start by changing your world.  Together, the world will change itself.

The interesting thing about this conversation is how quickly its dismissed. Obviously, it something that many people think about. But what isn’t is the joys and benefits of being single. And I wonder why that is.

What is it about being single? Is it taboo? If you’re single, it seems like you’re the only one. If you’re married, you can’t help but play matchmaker. If your dating, you look to couples for advice. I ask again: what is it about being single?

I have never been asked for advice on how to keep single. It seems like everyone I talk to absolutely hates being single and wants desperately to be with someone. Don’t get me wrong: there is nothing wrong with wanting to be married or wanting to be with someone. What I am suggesting is that there may be something to this hatred to singleness that must be examined by every person, single or not.

I haven’t seriously dated someone in almost eight years. Does that surprise you? Not in the “You’re so hot, who wouldn’t want you” kind of way. It shocks most people I tell because they can’t imagine not having someone for so long. But I look at them and ask, “How many break-ups have you had in the last eight years?” Their answer usually shocks me.

In the last eight years, I can’t begin to tell you some of the greatest things I’ve learned not just about myself but about dating and marriage. And I wouldn’t trade those lessons for all the speed-dating in the world. I believe they are lessons that you only learn being single. You can learn them when your married or dating, but they typically have a negative effect on the relationship.

I’ve learned that being in a relationship takes honesty and trust. This may sound elementary but I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen relationships fail because of this reason. I’ve also learned that relationships require grace and demand humility. Without either, the relationship will fail.

Being single, I’ve learned how to spend time alone and enjoy it. I’ve taken vacations by myself. I’ve come to understand who I am outside of another person and not have another person’s personality influence mine.

I’ve learned how to handle my money. Since I’m single, I have much more disposable income. But that doesn’t mean I should just spend it unscrupulously. I have a savings account that can help me survive a month and I’m working on extending that to 3 months.

I love how I don’t have to “check-in” with someone. At the same time, I understand the love behind couples who want to know what their significant other is doing at any given moment in a day.

Patience is something that God has grown in my life. I’ve come to accept that God may bless me with a wife or he may not. And I’m perfectly fine with it. Really!

Not many people I know can say these things. I have met too many people who wish they waited to get married and no one who wished they got married sooner. I’ve heard too many people regret the relationships they had and no one regretting waiting for the right person.

Instead of dismissing singleness, shouldn’t we, instead, embrace it? We spend all our childhood wishing we were older. We spend our adult years reliving our childhood.

In the case of singleness, you have a choice.

Make it count.

Being a former screenwriter, I’ve often wondered what would have happened if she admitted to her fiancé that she had doubts in the beginning of the movie.  Of course, it wouldn’t have made a good movie but that’s not the point.  But I think we all do this.  How often have you thought about how different your life would have turned out if you did something differently.

The amazing (perhaps confusing) thing about these choices is that dispite what we decide to do, it is all within the plan and will of God.  He knows what’s going to happen, how it’s going to happen, and why it will happen.  We’re not usually privy to this information.

Most people ask how this allows for the free will of man.  If God has everything planned, does that mean everything is predestined?  If so, does that mean that it doesn’t matter what we do?  Does God care?  Should we care?  Is there a point to life if everything has been decided for us?

The answer to this question is difficult and even the answer will force more questions.  The answer is also incredibly complex since the human concept of time is so primative.  I’m going to try my best to answer these questions.

I believe that as humans, we’re confined to the concept of linear time.  God, however, sees time in three-dimensions.  Consider this illustration: if time is a line, God would be the paper that the line is drawn on.  God has planned for every contingency.  In fact, God has a plan A and there is no plan B.

But as human beings, we cannot see time this way.  We see choices and alternatives.  Given that God has a perfect plan, we must then assume that there is nothing that man can do to outplan God’s will.  Nothing surprises God and he is always prepared.