“But for most Christians, faith is no laughing matter. It’s a deadly serious game, like the TV show Survivor. Heaven hangs in the balance, and the consequences of getting kicked off that island last forever, and then some. So if you go to most contemporary churches, you’ll find that they’re concerned with eternity, rather than infinity.
Countless Bible tracts left in public restrooms ask, “Where will you spend eternity?” Take your pick: heaven or hell. It’s a proposition rooted in fear — fear of an Almighty who seems to be most interested in making people holy enough, so that God can stand to be around them. Our main task is to live good, wholesome, moral lives. We’ve heard it so often, it seems to be self-evident. And so the vast scope of human potential is concentrated on the narrow target of achieving time off for good behavior.
I’m convinced that we’re meant for so much more. The “more” comes into play when we let go of our obsession with eternity and begin to entertain the possibility of infinity. This infinity is not at all what you might think. Popular conceptions of the afterlife have colored our thinking so completely that we can scarcely look beyond threadbare visions of angels strumming harps, while perched on white billowing clouds. That stereotype is so sterile that it’s little wonder we attempt to avoid death at every turn.”
Paul Radamacher, in “A Spiritual Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe”
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Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.
