Matt Walsh, closes his book, Church of Cowards, with this very provoking thought:
What do you want? In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis describes an afterlife where any soul can enter paradise if only that soul really wants to. "No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it," he says. But the problem is that the damned souls do not actually desire joy. The joy God offers - the only kind of joy available anywhere to anyone - is a joy of selflessness, adoration, and love. Many will decline the offer because they do not want to let go of their petty lust, pride, hatred, or whatever other stupid little thing they have organized their life around.
We get what we want. That is the beautiful and terrifying truth. The final interrogation on Judgment Day will not be very extensive. We will not be quizzed on how much we gave to charity, or how many old ladies we helped across the street, or how many hours we spent praying. Those things are all good and important in their way, but they are not the point. When our time comes and we are standing before the throne of judgement, God, I imagine, will only need to ask one questions, and it is the simplest and most fraught question anyone can ever ask: What do you want? And we, for the first time, will be forced to answer honestly, as we stand there in that place where no lies can be uttered.
I fear that a great many of us complacent "Christians" will have no choice but to look back at Him, knowing that we are seeing Him for the first and last time in our pitifully wasted lives, and say, "Myself, Lord. I want myself. Only myself."
Yet I pray, and I have hope, that you and I will be able to answer, with gratitude and joy, "You Lord. You are what I have been searching for. You are the answer to every question I have asked. You are my reason and my purpose. You are my hunger, my longing, the aching in my bones. I have lived my life in pursuit of You, Lord. And now I just want to come home. Please, Lord, let me come home."
No matter which answer we give to that fateful question, I am sure that God's response will be the same, "So be it, my child. As you wish." Then two doors will open before us - one to life and one to death. And we will simply walk through the one that we have chosen.
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgement, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. Hebrews 9:27-28
Coach's tip - An environment that is not safe to disagree is not an environment focused on growth - it is an environment focused on control.
Tip by Wendi Jade
Wits End - What's Going Into Your Head?