There is no going back. Try as we might to minimize consequences, every life choice is a final decision in this world. Literature and religion have painted for thousands of years grotesque glimpses of hell. The hell we all live out every day, however, is the realization that this life is hell on earth. That hell is the result of our being relational animals of the human order, social beings who because we are alive, inevitably become both victims and victimizers.
This is not
pleasant news and anyone who dares to speak of it will be vilified so we stay
silent. One often tried solution is to
runoff to some cave somewhere to avoid living out our relational nature. Spirituality is the stomping ground for this
kind of escapism but all such attempts have been short lived. Religion offers a
new set of clothes that gives the appearance of righteousness or goodness but
we are who we are, victims and victimizers. The most egregious response to avoiding our
hell on earth is the ever-present blame game of some sort or another. Not me
Lord! It’s the other guy.
If, as has
been claimed, the biblical word picture of the Garden of Eden is about eternity
and not some corner of our world, then the expulsion of humanity from that
garden is the same as the beginning of humanity’s hell on earth. In this story, the relational consequences
were immediate and severe, Cain, the son of the first man Adam, killed his
brother Abel. And so, it goes on and on in
hell.
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
