Excuse me- your motives are showing.

Quick quiz for you today.

Why do you want to go to Heaven?

a) To be with the Lord and dwell in His presence forevermore.

b) To experience the eternal joy of being with my Saviour.

c) Because I just can't get enough of that holy vibe.

d) Because, quite frankly, the idea of going elsewhere scares the ever living crud out of me and leaves me in a cold sweat!


Would you judge someone who answered 'd' or did you put a big, fat mental circle right round that sucker?

I was thinking about the post I made a little earlier about an online discussion- and, inevitably, started recalling other conversations I'd had with the same group of Christians. It made me realise two things.
Firstly- that it worries me just how condemning we can be to each other. It's sad to see how- in a world that the Bible warns will get tougher- we're pretty close sometimes to putting the Enemy out of a job! We're handling the Discourage and Discord part of things quite nicely all by ourselves with no outside interference necessary, so much of the time. It's actually why I rarely visit the website any more. So much nastiness when hiding behind the anonymity of a keyboard.

"This command I give to thee...Thou shalt not troll the internet"





The second thing I realised is that I have a low-troll tolerance level- and tend to want to give someone a virtual smack round the head (never said I was a perfect Christian either!!!!) when they're pouncing on some poor soul who plucked up the courage to put a bit of their vulnerability out there and admit that they're struggling with something in their faith..

Anywhoozle..... one person had admitted that he'd become a Christian because he was scared of the idea of hell. He didn't want to miss his chance of Heaven. Did we think that that would make God angry?

Now, there were (there always are, thankfully) some very decent replies- but it shocked me that the overwhelming response was the computer equivalent of tutting and head-shaking.

 Didn't he realise that our main purpose is to LOVE God, for goodness' sake? We should be wanting to go to Heaven to enjoy the privilege of being in His Holy Presence. How selfish to think of his own fears- and he should sort his motivations out.........

There are some scary people out there.

I lied earlier, by the way. I said I had realised two things. It's actually three. The third being that I tend to disengage from those sort of arguments and just illustrate what I want to say instead.

So- my thoughts on our motivation in this whole Christian malarky....

Imagine this:

You're on a ship miles from anywhere. You've been enjoying the journey and getting a little of that sea air- when something happens. It may be a freak wave, it may be that you leaned a bit too far over- and ...SPLASH!

The next thing you know you're in the water. No one has noticed. The ship sails on without you and you're alone in the deepest ocean you can imagine. Everything in you goes into a frenzied panic. You can't swim- goodness knows how you've managed to stay afloat this long! Your life is flashing before your eyes and you know that you're about to end up as fish food.

Suddenly, above the sound of the sea, you just hear the rhythmic lapping of oars cutting powerfully through water. A boat appears over the waves and the man rowing with such skill pulls the boat alongside you. He looks at you and says "In you get!"

You look back at him, spluttering a little as you call above the splashing of your arms, "I can't!"

"Why not?" the man asks.

"It wouldn't be right!" you cough.

The man looks at you with a raised brow. "Oh? Why not?"

"Well," you say, coming up to gulp down some air while you still can, "I wouldn't be getting in the boat for the right reasons."

The man leans on the edge of the boat. "Well, I'm not going to force you to get in- it's your choice. But I'm curious- what reason do you think you need?"

"I don't know you for a start!" you gasp.

The man can't help a smile. "Do you really think this is the time for worrying about stranger danger?"

"I don't mean that" you wail, as you start to sink. "I mean....well...it's not right. I wouldn't be getting in the boat because I like you. I wouldn't be getting in because I want to spend time with you, I'd only be doing it so I don't drown!"

The man leans further over towards you and says "And you don't think that that's a good enough reason to climb into a boat?"

You shake your soaking wet hair out of your eyes, which sting with salt. "It'd be very selfish, wouldn't it? It'd only benefit me!"

As you spit water out of your mouth, the man speaks gently and quietly- yet somehow you can hear every word.

"I knew that you were in trouble. I knew that you couldn't fight this overwhelming ocean alone and live. I came out here with only one purpose; to save you. It was my choice. Now- how about you let me do just that?  How about letting 'living' be enough of a reason for now? We've a fair journey ahead. Why don't you climb in- and we'll take care of the getting to know me and working out the rest on the way?"

You look up through a watery haze- and take his outstretched hand.......