During the Seventh Crusade, Yves le Breton reported how he once came across an old woman who wandered down the street with a dish full of fire in her right hand and a bowl full of water in her left hand. He watched her for some time, and then asked her why she carried the two bowls. She replied that with the fire she would burn up Paradise until nothing remained of it, and with the water she would put out the fires of Hell until nothing remained of them. She then added, “Because I want no one to do good in order to receive the reward of Paradise, or from fear of Hell; but solely out of love for God.”
I love this story because it perfectly represents my own views on the afterlife, as well as living the Christian life in the here and now. Too many people are scared into “living a good life” out of fear of the flames of hell or because they are looking forward to some sort of heavenly payback.
I certainly know that the former was true of my own childhood. A worship service was incomplete without at least one attempt to get the worshipers to feel hellfire licking their ankles. Preachers would stoop to use any ploy available to them to scare the sin out of their listeners. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a variation on the “what if you leave here and are killed in a car accident and die in your sins” story. It always ends with the poor slob waking up surrounded by hordes of demons and nothing to look forward to except an eternity of being a crispy critter.
And on the other hand I have seen too many Christians who seek to get God into letting them into heaven by performing some list of good deeds and duties they have constructed. They are out for the rewards of living a “good” life, and they remind me of some of those folks in the days of my youth who sang songs like, “Will there be any stars, any stars in my crown.”
For me, the Christian life is its own reward. Further, our love for God should be our only motive. After all, given God’s great love of us (as seen in Jesus), the only appropriate response is to freely give our love back to God.
Now, do not misunderstand me, I know that in the hereafter it will be wonderful to be with my creator and the one who loved me before I ever even knew him, not to mention all those who have gone on before me. I can’t wait for that, but my life now is (hopefully) based only on my love of God and not on some great fear or great greed.
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