This article is an answer to a question I was asked about heaven. There isn’t actually anything about heaven in the answer. It’s more of a mental exercise in the alternative to not living for Christ.

Is heaven actually worth it?

I HEAR your question though! It’s a question I’ve asked myself from time to time. What I feel and know deeply, every time I’ve deeply pondered the question and similar ones, can only be summed up by Peter’s words to Jesus. After Jesus really offended everyone by telling them that they must “eat his body and drink his blood,” it says that many of those who were following him changed their mind (John 6:66)! It was just too much for them. It took too much faith! Jesus then asks the 12…”Will you leave me too?” Peter’s answer is what I feel and know deeply: “Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words of eternal life, you are our only hope” (John 6:68 AMP).
I can tell you that I arrived at that conclusion through multiple avenues…but I’ll tell you the cerebral/mental ascent that brought me to the same conviction as Peter’s.

The Poster Children of Meaninglessness*

Let’s imagine for a second that we are all accidents, products of time + chance + matter, Darwinian Evolution in a nutshell. If that’s the case, what is the point of life since nothing matters? Since nothing matters because there is no Creator, no “big guy in the sky” looking out for us or to whom we must answer, the only option is to make up our own meaning (or suicide as Camut brilliantly concluded…but suicide is not an option since it decisively ends any potential for meaning).** Therefore, I can go one of two ways. I can live a life of “Me,” or a life of “Me + Other”. If I choose the life of “Me,” nothing is holding me back from doing whatever I want, whenever I want (except laws…but those are circumventable man-made constructs, right?). This is the life that the famous playboy Oscar Wild lived. You can read his seeming autobiography in his sci-fi horror, The Picture of Dorian Grey (highly recommended read btw). Even Wild had to admit the utter pointlessness in living such a life, having discovered firsthand the bottomless pit of torture that a self-indulgent life breeds.

Me + Other = Fulfillment; Fulfillment = Meaning

The second choice, living the life of “Me + Other,” is preferable. Anyone who has sought to live for not just self but for others, whether they be religious or not, has found great fulfillment in such a life. Fulfillment is meaning. Fulfillment is that little mountain we sometimes come to in life (usually after a hard go) where the clouds clear away and we see miles of meaningfulness stretching toward horizons of potentiality. Like a wanderer above the sea of fog.

Therefore, even if God is a fanciful illusion and the Bible but a book penned by madmen, through a belief in God and living by that book of myths, one can obtain the most fulfilling life here on earth…even if we think all there is to life is the now.

Let’s Make a Wager…if you’re willing to bet on it

This very idea arrives at the astute deduction of the Pascalian Wager. The conversation would go thus: “Let’s say you’re right Mr. or Ms. Atheist. Let’s say we are all products of Darwinian Evolution and nothing matters other than the meaning we assign. If that’s true, as a Christian, I am finding the most fulfilled life by assigning meaning to my life through a relationship with Jesus the Creator. My life is thus fully fulfilled. Why do you fault me for that Sir or Madam Atheist? In fact, if your philosophy is correct, I have nothing to lose by living thus! When I die, if that’s it, then that’s it. I live a fulfilling life and am no more. Adieu. BUT! And that’s a big but. Let’s say that I’m right and you’re wrong. Let’s say that there is a creator and He does want to be in a relationship with you and me and wants to save us from a meaningless life of self-indulgence and wants us to ultimately live forever with Him in an eternity of meaningfulness: well, if that’s true, I still win! And you, my friend, have everything to lose.”

*Meaninglessness – I’ve never realized how ironically long that word is!

**If you think suicide is your only option, text me the word “help” NOW and we can talk via chat or on the phone: 512-710-9039