A Reflection

I was cruising the cyber highway in my turbo last night, trolling for chicks. Well, for references to myself. Same thing. No woman loves me, you see. So I must love myself. Turns out I’m practically a god, on the Web. True, the unknown god, of whom some a-hole wrote in German that I was an idiot. Nazi scum. But every lord must have his blasphemers.

Now I’m boring myself.

The point is that I came across a fellow who objects to God because, what loving God would arrange for an eternal hell? I looked him up and left a comment (which he seems to have removed ... how is that possible?), the gist of which was that Hell, as the place where God is not, lacks that organizing principle which God’s presence must bring. Fire and darkness are the result, as is suffering -- all inevitable, without God. The objection ultimately hangs on this: what is love? The sloppy modern definition seems to involve some dewy sentiment. A feeling. Perhaps a burning in the heart. In any case, love could not possibly allow suffering.

Wrong.

Love is hard. Love ties its son to an altar and prepares to cut his throat. Love nails his son to a cross and watches while he suffers eternal pain. Love volunteers for this unending torment. Love sacrifices. And it really, really hurts.

Anything less is just a mood.

It pleases my dark heart when I read certain blogs, written by men who love their wives, or wives who love their husbands. For all the facts and analyses and politics, it makes me smile to read of some clear or implied devotion by people who appreciate what they have. And if there is some circumstantial problem, to read between the lines and believe that through the pain that comes from the pain of a loved one, the bonds are made stronger -- well, this is lovely, and it redeems the world.

Why is there suffering? That we may reflect love in the comforting. Why is there eternal suffering? Because there has been eternal comfort, offered, and rejected. It isn’t that there is an unloving God. It’s that there are people who don't love God. God, it turns out, is like vegetables. He’s good for you.

J