Eternal happiness

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I’m thinking about heaven lately since I’ll be going there eventually. (I hope)
We are eternally happy in heaven, no weeping, no sorrow, and so on. So I’m starting to wonder why that doesn’t get old. Don’t we need some downtime, as humans, some time when we’re not ecstatically happy, maybe even some rain clouds to contrast with the perpetual light? i know that a change in weather can be pleasant and even exciting.
Why would we not need that in eternity?
 
Viki63 said:
I’m thinking about heaven lately since I’ll be going there eventually. (I hope)
We are eternally happy in heaven, no weeping, no sorrow, and so on. So I’m starting to wonder why that doesn’t get old. Don’t we need some downtime, as humans, some time when we’re not ecstatically happy, maybe even some rain clouds to contrast with the perpetual light? i know that a change in weather can be pleasant and even exciting.
Why would we not need that in eternity?
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The Beatific Vision is ever new.
 
I’ve thought about this a little and here is what I think.

The love of God is amazing inasmuch as it seems to make me more loving the more I embrace it. I have been loved by other people, but the love never changed me inside like the love of God does. In being loved by God, we become more loving. Since God’s love is infinite, it would seem to me that I will be ever increasingly filled with love for eternity(if I make it to heaven). This is just one attribute of God.

Everything I have experienced in life seems to get old. Sex, drugs, music, skydiving, money…it all seems to grow stale the more I indulge in it. It’s a strangely reciprocal quality of pleasure…I think it’s due to the fact that we have infinite desires that finite things cannot satisfy perpetually. I’m not the first to think that I know, I think C.S. Lewis said something like that. Anyway, it’s strange that when I satisfy one desire, I long for another. God is infinite and only He can satisfy.

To say we need pleasure for pain makes sense… after all, what is better than rest after a long day? Yet, it seems that this is a limited way of seeing it. Just like Christ fulfilled the old testament predictions perfectly yet in a totally different way than expected, I think God has something in store for us that we can’t fathom.
 
NO TIME! Joy beyond all joy, bliss beyond all bliss in a timeless eternity.
 
You’re thinking about this as a human would think about it.
The Beatific Vision and everything associated with it is not going to get boring or stale like things do on earth, and we won’t be experiencing things “as humans do”.
Also, I don’t think any of us ever wish for sorrow or pain as our “downtime” from happiness. We might wish for a nap or a quiet day. I’m sure there are ways of being quietly happy in Heaven, we aren’t expected to dance and sing praise at the top of our lungs all day long.

The comparison to weather is not apt; God created all kinds of weather and the Universe contains a lot of dark space punctuated by God’s created lights (stars, planets etc). I have no doubt Heaven will contain all kinds of weather for us to enjoy, just without the headaches of needing to drive through fog or dig out of deep snow.
 
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I think just the opposite Viki63…the longer we’re in the presence of God the more awed we’re going to be over his majesty and the glory of his creation
 
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I must admit that I don’t really think about what heaven would be like. I have the desire to get there, but I never speculate what it will be like. I view it as one big surprise and have no expectations beyond seeing the face of God for the first time. If that makes me simple, so be it.
 
After the Resurrection, we will be human, and earth will be earth, only perfected. There may still be storms and landslides and mosquitos, but we will not be harmed, and we will see the beauty and rightness of all these things.
 
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God thrills me the more I know him and I am aware that I don’t know even the tip of the tip of iceberg ad infinitum. Also that my intellect is dulled by sin so I can barely contain myself in excitement that some day I may know him as he is. I can’t really think past that but I am sure it’ll far surpass anything I can imagine as God is super abundant in his generosity on earth so heaven is likely to keep me in joy forever, not that it’s about me.
 
Eternally happy yes. But does that mean we are not challenged?

Let me put it another way. The Angels are presumably eternally happy, yes? They delight in the Lord and in doing his will. And he sends them into spiritual combat on our behalf.
 
I didn’t realize this back when the retreat master stated it, but “eternity” is a time construct.

The reality is that there is no reality, only now. 😉
 
I have read somewhere (Dr. Kreeft?) that since we are not God, we must experience events sequentially, that is one after another. So it doesn’t seem as if we will live in one moment of Now-- there would be no room for anything to happen if that were so.
 
Viki63 said:
I’m thinking about heaven lately since I’ll be going there eventually. (I hope)
We are eternally happy in heaven, no weeping, no sorrow, and so on. So I’m starting to wonder why that doesn’t get old. Don’t we need some downtime, as humans, some time when we’re not ecstatically happy, maybe even some rain clouds to contrast with the perpetual light? i know that a change in weather can be pleasant and even exciting.
Why would we not need that in eternity?
Click to expand...
Light is a metaphor for learning or knowledge or wisdom or truth, or all of the above. I’m sure there can be all sorts of weather systems in whatever creation exists.

Understanding the mysteries of God is an infinite endeavor, so we’ll never be in a state of boredom.
 
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Do you think that in God’s realm, “now” is an eternal present moment – a present moment that lasts forever? No beginning and no end, no past and no future – just perpetual present? I’ve often pondered this – everything existing in the present and as the present. In God’s realm, that would be infinite, so there would be plenty of room for anything and everything to happen.
 
There is only now, time is relevant to us mortals only

God is present in the now, not in the past not in the future, only now, for it’s all that exists.
 
I have heard that God is outside of time, not in the now. He can see past, present, and future at the same time.
But we mortals can only experience reality one second at a time.
 
There is no boredom in heaven. Boredom relates to earth and time. Ponder a transcendent existence: Imagine, if you will, each and every molecule in your body being energized with a blazing, hotter than the sun love! Imagine being in a perpetual state of utter ecstasy. How long will it last?

Wrong question! Outside of time, our existence will be nothing - literally nothing - like here on earth. Words cannot describe it. Our imaginations cannot conceive of it. Our intellects far too dull to have knowledge of it while stuck here in this pilgrim condition.

We hope. We do not hope for what we have; for what we can grasp; for what can perceive. We hope for the most amazing, stupefying, perplexing, incredible promise ever made, to be realized.

No longer ourselves as we we know ourselves, we will be absorbed into Love Itself. We do not hope for heaven to be earth without bills or ills. That would be more like hell, actually.

No. Heaven is, well, like heaven!
 
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