Basic Theology 7

I woke up earlier than expected, just before midnight on less than three hours sleep. I wasn't able to get back to sleep because my neighbour upstairs was stomping across my ceiling and there were sirens sounding outside. You see, usually, I wear earplugs when I go to bed and don't rely on the alarm clock. But when I have to be out of here at 5 am to catch an international flight, then I am going to have to listen for the clock alarm, and I can't hear it that well with earplugs, so this is not the best way to start a trip, but still inevitable because people usually do have trouble sleeping the night before an early flight. Fortunately I have earplugs with me, and when I am on the plane I can nod off to sleep for a few hours, even though seated upright and crowded with strangers, but the earplugs should help. I am still thinking of basic theology and the whole concept of hell. I used to take it as gospel that only those who were saved made it to heaven, that the blood of Jesus and our faith in him gave us an automatic get out of jail free card. I have of course modified this position somewhat. I still believe that there are those who never make it into the divine presence upon death, but this has everything to do with people not wanting God, and nothing to do with God being a cruel tyrant who casts the unwanted and lost into a lake of fire. I still believe that as attracted as we all are to the love, beauty and goodness of God, we are also terrified and repelled by his truth and our experience of our unworthiness, and this is always going to be a struggle. But I also believe that God is merciful and loving and will spare no effort to secure us all to himself, and it could be that even the most recalcitrant and reprobate among us will one day rejoice in the presence of his eternal love and light. Does this make me a universalist? I can't rightly say, because I really don't know. I do believe most of the accounts I have heard and read about near-death experiences. There is a consistency and credibility to these accounts that resonate. You see, Gentle Reader, God is love, and even the most unloving and unlovely of us must one day respond to his call of love. I don't know what awaits me after death. But I do want to be in God's presence, and I want that process to begin here and now. I have finally packed everything for my journey to Costa Rica. I have only to add my laptop to my baggage and I will be ready to go. Stay tuned for my travel journal. Bye for now.