Blog 171 – 11.26.15

Today is a day that many people in the United States of America set aside as a day to be thankful, to over eat, and to watch a lot of football. Of all the things we have to be thankful for the promise of Heaven is for those who believe it high on the list. I know John Lennon and many others believed and yet believe that we could make this a better world if we Imagine There’s No Heaven.

When I was a little boy my dad’s favorite female singer was Kitty Wells. She made popular a country song called, “How Far Is Heaven?” I am told that I was also quite fond of that song and would pull a kitchen chair up to the refrigerator on top of which the radio sat so I could hear Kitty sing about Heaven.

But is there really a place called Heaven and where is it actually? The most definitive and authoritative thing written on the subject is a quote attributed to Jesus, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” That kind of goes contrary to a lot of the teachings and rumors about a land somewhere over the rainbow that Dorothy of Kansas heard about once in a lullaby. I think the King of Heaven as it were resides in each human heart. That is not a hard thing to believe since He is omni-present, meaning He is everywhere.

Heaven, like Love, Joy, and Peace begin inside each one of us. Did you notice the King of Heaven can and has also been called the King of Love, Joy, and Peace. There is a pattern developing here and it is no accident. There is only one enemy of Love, Joy, Peace and Heaven and that is an imaginary one created by the misguided mind of man, ego. I will no longer capitalize that word for it is an insignificant thing but one that would if possible rob us of Love, Joy, Peace, and Heaven. It is not possible as one of my favorite verses makes abundantly clear. “Who shall separate us from the love of God? I am convinced that neither height nor depth nor any created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.” For a long time I worried about Satan because I wrongly thought he was not a created thing. I do not believe that God created Satan. Satan’s real name is ego. Most of what we believe about him comes from a long poem by John Milton called Paradise Lost about the supposed war in heaven where Lucifer/Satan/ego and his rebellious following of angels were cast out. In this epic poem is the famous scene of a cast down enemy raising his fist to the sky saying, “I would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.” To me that is the perfect picture of ego. There is no hell, there is no Satan or ego, there is only God. That is the true meaning of the line that Jews and Muslims shout alike “God is One.” It does not mean as so many mistake “Our God is the One true God” but that “God is all there is and we are a part of His Oneness” as is Love, Joy, Peace, and Heaven. Little ego would have us post pone Heaven, Love, Joy, Peace and even God to some future time and space but God is One and God is Now and He is inside us and we in Him. Heaven and Home is where the heart is.

Another country song said, “Heaven’s just a sin away” but it is a lot closer than that. The kingdom of heaven in in your heart. As I say to every fellow Vietnam Vet I meet I say to you, road weary pilgrim, “Welcome Home, Brother.”
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White