I am very comfortable confronting the concept of another life after this one with a kind of reverent agnosticism. My faith is rooted in God’s unending love and such a reality assumes that this love is unstoppable, even by death.

But how all of this happens, the logistics of this heavenly afterlife, I leave entirely with God. I do not feel compelled to spend much time concerned with that aspect of the kingdom. What I do feel called to do, however, is seek the kingdom of God in this life.

I continue to find it curious that there are so many folk who seem so concerned about entering the kingdom beyond and so reluctant to have anything to do with the kingdom now. My hunch is that they are going to be sorely disappointed...and not because of any divine decision to send them all to the fires of hell but because they are going to discover that God’s idea of heaven and their’s is very different.

If we are to believe Jesus over some of the more fanciful religious writers, heaven has precious little to do with golden gates and angelic harps and everything to do with feeding the hungry and serving the poor.

If you trust the Bible rather than some best-selling book, you tend to believe that heaven is a time of serving others rather than being served.

I am afraid there are going to be an awful lot of folk who will find heaven to be a hell of a place.