Thought of the Day 07.24.09

Imagine a slightly different conversation between Jesus and the rich young ruler:

RYR: What good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
Jesus: Why do you want eternal life?
RYR: Because I want to persist.
Jesus: But what if eternity is punishment?
RYR: Well, yes, that would not be ideal.
Jesus: What if all of eternity you spend growing ever more infatuated with the thing you prize the most?
RYR: Yes, that sounds nice.
Jesus: What if that thing is God?
RYR: Yes, I can see how that might work.
Jesus: What if that thing is you?
RYR: Sure, that would be fine also. I am quite a guy, after all.
Jesus: But what if you spent all of eternity discovering just how little of you there is left when all of God is removed from you? And yet what if you continued to fall more and more in love with something less and less lovely?
RYR: Well, that would be a horrible thing.
Jesus: So do you want eternal life merely so that you may go on existing, or do you want eternal life so that you may go on enjoying the presence of the only thing that can actually continue to satisfy you as you behold Him for all of eternity?