987 - Close, But Not Quite ...

Friends: We as humans pursue unconditional love, but only God gets it right.  See the column below. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #987

October 14, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Close, But Not Quite …

By Bob Walters

“[May you] grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” – Ephesians 3:17

“Only unconditional love in some facet of your life gives you the proper perspective to appreciate what is great about transactional things, but allows you to see them for what they are, which is transactional. There’s no Valhalla at the top of Rock Mountain. – Billy Corgan

Valhalla is the mythical, majestic mountain where Norse god Odin houses warriors who died bravely in battle. At Valhalla the warriors feast at night but train during the day to fight alongside Odin against giants in the ultimate battle at the end of the world.  One could say Valhalla is sort of the Norse version of Heaven, but not quite.

Billy Corgan is/was an alt rock music star – the lead singer for The Smashing Pumpkins (very big in the 1980s and 1990s) – who was recently on Bill Mahar’s show. I have seen Corgan interviewed before and he is well-spoken and a deep thinker.

At the top of “Rock Mountain,” he noted – i.e., his music career – no amount of fame and money truly fill and complete one’s life. He asserted such things are “transactional,” meaning you give something, then get something, then … dial tone.

Billy is saying that only unconditional love – something that isn’t a trade for anything, something that isn’t tangible, or a measurable condition or return for something you yourself do – provides the mystical, fulfilling, next-level, beyond-this-world understanding of the limitations of worldly success. Worldly success falls short; worldly love is imperfect.

Unconditional love is not a transaction; it is a revelation of divine experience.

This would all make complete sense if Corgan were speaking as a Christian, of the love of Jesus Christ, of the grace, mercy, and righteousness of the One True God, of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the eternal hope and promise of Heaven. But Billy is not quite there. 

In the interview he goes on to talk about the unconditional love of his family, which is worth more than all the trappings of a glittering rock and roll career.  But a “trap” is what money and fame often are, and we know, as Shakespeare said, “all that glitters is not gold.” Billy sees truth, but imperfectly.

Mahar is an entrenched atheist, but reasonable when confronted with life’s mysterious human truths of love and loyalty. He just can’t see far enough up the mountain to understand human truth is actually God’s truth, and that it is not for sale.

Corgan eloquently describes unconditional love, but you want to nudge him to move from the imperfection of human love to the only perfect love, that of God. Billy’s observation is a great object lesson for Christians whose faith tends toward the reward and punishment dynamic of what we “earn” with our worldly actions as opposed to what Jesus promises us in our divine faith: the unconditional love of God.

Billy's thoughtful description of "transactional" shortcomings in the material world got me thinking.  We miss a key aspect of God's love and Jesus's sacrifice when we say Jesus "paid for our sins" or even that he was "punished for our sins," both of which are considered heresy in the Orthodox tradition because Christ’s work is unconditional love, not a trade or a cost.

Today's marketing oriented, transactional Western culture insists that if we do something bad, we should be punished, and if we do something good, we should be rewarded.  Pay or be paid.  That, sadly is what the modern Western church has largely come to, and it’s not quite right.

The purest love I have in this world is with my wife and my sons, but I don't pay them, and they don't pay me. The very purest love of all is God's, and how could God or Jesus or the Spirit pay or be paid for anything? They can’t and they don’t.  Of that, I am sure.

None of us is going to get a "bill due" when we get to heaven.  We'll either get a hug (I like to imagine) and invited in, or ignored – "I never knew you" – and exist elsewhere. The transactional will stay right where I believe it belongs ... in this not quite satisfying world.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes God’s love is transcendent and transforming, and thanks Peter Heck’s Dashboard Jesus podcast for noticing Bill Mahar’s interview with Corgan.