Road Rage…..in Paradise

I want to spend a little more time this week on the transition from the temporal world to the spiritual world. If you are new, you might want to read my last few posts.

I’m a Christian. I believe in Jesus and have accepted his gift of forgiveness……a gift that I didn’t earn and that I don’t deserve. I am going to paradise when I die. That may not be what I deserve. It may not be fair……or just…….but that is how God’s grace and mercy work.

So……picture this:

I’m in paradise, driving down the road, on my way to worship, in my car……….a ’67 Camaro SS (sky blue with white rally stripes, 4 speed, and a loud exhaust). Hey, this is paradise after all. Some teenage kid blows through a stoplight at 80 mph. I slam on the brakes and barely miss a collision. As he zooms off on his merry way. I mutter under my breath, “G.. D… F…… A……” Then I head on off to church.

That doesn’t sound right does it? Forget the kid. My behavior in this situation is not at all what heaven will be like. And yet, in the last year…….in this temporal world…….I’m sure that I have done something similar…….if not worse. And I have done it over and over.

Road rage in paradise.

There is only one logical conclusion to this conundrum.

In my current condition……..I do not belong in paradise.

I do not belong in paradise………and yet, that is where I am headed. These two ideas are incompatible. This situation calls for a fix, because I don’t believe for a minute that road rage will be a part of the landscape in paradise. I don’t believe for one minute that paradise will be modified to suit my temper……or lack of control over it.

No…….the fix is that I will be changed…….transformed into the kind of man that Jesus is looking for. You too will be “fixed”. This will probably be one of our first experiences in paradise.

The fix will be different for each of us. For some, it will be a minor tuneup……….for others it will be earthshaking. It will be permanent. The process may very well be uncomfortable……if not painful. But…….the result will be satisfying and it will feel good……..because we will return to the condition that we were created for……..because we will finally be the men and women that we were meant to be. I can’t tell you what this will feel like, because I can’t even imagine it. We have fallen so far away from our original purpose…….our true identity…….that we can’t even see it from here.

But, I know this……..it will be right. It will be so right that it is worth making changes for……worth making sacrifices for….today…..in order to experience it. This could require some hard work….on my part. So…….I might as well get started now.

To do that, I need to start asking myself some questions:

“Is what I am doing, saying, or thinking………right now…….something that will fit in……..something that will be appropriate……..in paradise?”

And

“Is there a better choice for me today, here, in this broken world……..a choice that will be more compatible with my future home?

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul, ESV

But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

John, describing paradise, ESV

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Jesus, ESV