Spirituality Column #783

November 16, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Where Does It End?

By Bob Walters

“… even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:8-9

Pam and I joined a few thousand other joyful souls at Clowes Hall Saturday for the stage production of C.S. Lewis’s thought-provoking 1945 book, The Great Divorce.

At least, one could well assume those gathered were mostly joyful souls.  A grump – especially a narcissistic one – would have a hard time watching the production (or reading the book) without, I would imagine, feeling uncomfortably convicted.

Nonetheless, it’s a book I’d recommend to anyone I ever heard say anything like, “A good God would not allow …”.  Or, “A God of love wouldn’t allow …”.  Fill in the blanks.  Those blanks typically are what the members of the human race do to their fallen selves when taking the cue from Satan to blame or disobey God.

In others words what I hear is, “Here’s how I would run things if I were God.”

And what I understand in those words is that I’m listening to someone who is robbing themselves of knowing God’s love, truth, and joy; and who is subordinating – at least in those moments and thoughts – the entire purpose of human life: to glorify God.

Did you think life’s purpose was to be saved?  Or to “do the right thing”?  Or as one of the opening characters in the book asserts in a huff, “I’m just here to get my rights.”  We’re here to love God, sacrifice for others, and know Jesus is the saving, perfect Son of God … and revel in the joy and life of possessing that knowledge in faith.

The Great Divorce bills itself as the divorce of Good and Evil, which it is, but I’d define it as more the great divorce of our petty, self-directed, painful lives from, and into, the great joy and glory of God’s eternal otherness and wholeness nestled in Jesus. 

Hell, or Heaven?  We choose.  Christ has already done the heavy lifting.

The Great Divorce is Lewis’s work that poses the poignant question: “Are the gates of Hell locked from the inside?”  It is a fantasy dream treatment that examines the deceased who inhabit a dreary but not-too-bad Hell who can go to Heaven – by bus – to visit or stay, any time they please.  Many make the trip; few choose to stay.

What leads them back to lock themselves in dreary Hell is their inability to cultivate, nurture, recognize, accept, or even consider the totality of God’s purpose and righteousness juxtaposed with their misplaced human sovereign sense of “Who I Am.”

On stage, four actors played the book’s 20 or so characters in front of a large video screen backdrop and it was wonderful.  It was a one-show Saturday afternoon presentation and I’m no drama critic, so all I can say is I enjoyed it and had a nice conversation about it with Pam on the way home.  I’d re-read the book earlier that day.

The book, incidentally, is a quick 140-page read and ends with the adventure’s narrator – presumably Lewis himself – waking up from this very vivid but strange dream.

Where our journey of life ends – whether in Heaven or Hell – Lewis suggests, depends on whether we choose the joy, love, totality, supremacy, and utter reality of God over the pride, jealousy, fear, suffering, and stubbornness of our vaporous lives. 

Salvation is as simple as that but impossible for many. Where it ends is up to us.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows Jesus is the only reason Heaven is open to us.