Would heaven be... Fun?

[Tadtomczyk]

I know what your about to say. Your about to say that angels and god and Jesus cleanse my heart and I will be eternally happy. But that’s not what I want. I want to have the same heart I have on earth. I don’t want to be eternally happy. I know once I get there I would be but from the perspective I have right now, i just don’t want it. The best part about being happy, is knowing you have lived through all the saddness to get to it. But if there’s not a single reason to be happy, I just don’t see the fun. I want to have the same feelings on earth, I don’t want to be a freaky man, that just has a smile and is “always” happy. The best of life is pushing through hard times, and getting up and getting it right. Thats what I want and I love extreme sports, skating, snowboarding, cliff jumping etc. when you fall, the best part is to get back up and get it right, knowing you just went through hard work. But if u get it right everytime, what’s the fun of it? I mean, I don’t want to go to hell, but heaven just seems “too happy”. Help me please.

 

[Kurisu35712]

The eternal happiness of Heaven isn’t a pasted on happiness “because Jesus,” so to speak. Rather, think of it this way. You have the option to spend the rest of your life in the company of your best friend in the entire world, whoever that may be, minus disagreements about things. It’s really really difficult to actually describe, since we obviously don’t experience that on earth, but that’s to me the general idea.

Likewise, I don’t think Heaven is actually as boring as some of the more common descriptions tend to make it sound. I can’t give you any resources off the top of my head, but I know a lot of Saints have described visions of Heaven that might be a bit more interesting than the commonly represented idea of “going to Church, just forever” kind of thing. God made all of Creation for us to experience it, so it wouldn’t make much sense for us to have maybe an average of 70 years to experience the small part we can, resurrect our bodies at the end of time, and then just have everyone sit there being “happy.” Our senses as they are now aren’t able to experience Creation as they were designed to, so I find it somewhat inconceivable that in Heaven, our senses are there so much more, but with nothing to really experience with them.

 

[benotagoat]

I know what your about to say. Your about to say that angels and god and Jesus cleanse my heart and I will be eternally happy. But that’s not what I want. I want to have the same heart I have on earth. I don’t want to be eternally happy. I know once I get there I would be but from the perspective I have right now, i just don’t want it. The best part about being happy, is knowing you have lived through all the saddness to get to it. But if there’s not a single reason to be happy, I just don’t see the fun. I want to have the same feelings on earth, I don’t want to be a freaky man, that just has a smile and is “always” happy. The best of life is pushing through hard times, and getting up and getting it right. Thats what I want and I love extreme sports, skating, snowboarding, cliff jumping etc. when you fall, the best part is to get back up and get it right, knowing you just went through hard work. But if u get it right everytime, what’s the fun of it? I mean, I don’t want to go to hell, but heaven just seems “too happy”. Help me please.

Don’t worry ,heaven will have many challenges to overcome,and many new and
wonderful things to discover ; new people ,new vistas,and work ,plenty of work , which will always be a pleasure ,but challenging .

The main thing is there will be no fear of death which plagues humanity,and all the very worst of human degradation will not exist there.

You will not go there until you have suffered so much, that you will beg Godto go to Heaven with Him for peace ,love, and perfect beauty can only be found there with Him

Oh and there will be plenty of humour ,of that I am sure .

Heaven is not static ,but in my opinion all the new challenges including going to new horizons will be part of ‘heaven’ . It is my opinion that those who deny God will find themselves in ‘hell’, because they will never ever be able to go with God as we are taken to higher and higher levels of existence. The atheists (hardline) punishment will be to realise that all the wonders of creation will never be theirs because they denied the Creator of all those wonders .

 

[hansard]

I’ve read here and elsewhere that Heaven is “the eternal contemplation of God” or words to that effect.
If that’s the case, what’s the point? A God who creates beings who go through a lifetime of privations and hardships just so they can spend eternity looking at him? I hardly think so.

There are some faiths who speculate on this far more than the RCC. One fundamentalist faith I followed years ago said that the eternal afterlife would be spent with God and the angels in the business of creation.

After all (the argument goes), there would be an almost-infinite universe with which to work - a galaxy, at least, for every person who has ever lived. What a creative canvas that would be to work with!

That’s the God for me. A doer, not just an object of worship.

 

[Kurisu35712]

I’ve read here and elsewhere that Heaven is “the eternal contemplation of God” or words to that effect.
If that’s the case, what’s the point? A God who creates beings who go through a lifetime of privations and hardships just so they can spend eternity looking at him? I hardly think so.

There are some faiths who speculate on this far more than the RCC. One fundamentalist faith I followed years ago said that the eternal afterlife would be spent with God and the angels in the business of creation.

After all (the argument goes), there would be an almost-infinite universe with which to work - a galaxy, at least, for every person who has ever lived. What a creative canvas that would be to work with!

That’s the God for me. A doer, not just an object of worship.

“Contemplation of God” can mean a lot of different things though other than just the literal meaning of thinking about God. For example, if I were to ask you to contemplate the complexity of a leaf, there’s a lot more there than just the initial “oh it’s a leaf.” God created literally everything. So contemplating God would also by extension be contemplation (and experience) of everything He created, which there are a lot of things.

Also, contemplating isn’t just done by sitting down and looking at a thing. If I wanted to contemplate a particularly interesting building, I’d walk through it, study the structural systems, go see it at different times of the day. If I wanted to contemplate snowboarding, the easiest way to do that is to actually go snowboarding. You’d have to fight me to get me to contemplate a chocolate bar any way other than eating it. But obviously contemplation isn’t the word we use for those things, since there are other words we use when we’re experiencing something specific.

You can’t confine experiencing God’s glory to seeing, or feeling, or hearing, or even tasting, since all of Creation glorifies Him. You’d have to do a lot of experiencing to be able to even begin to comprehend the infinite qualities that we use to describe God. At least that’s how I’d interpret it, though I’ve never actually heard the phrase before now.

 

[SighGuy]

Rest assured that it is really only your-- OUR, really-- understanding of Heaven which is deficient. If you cannot rest assured on this, then you may well torture yourself about it in the most illogical of ways. You may want to gain a stronger foothold in theology. Why not try Frank Sheed’s Theology for Beginners?

 

[benotagoat]

I’ve read here and elsewhere that Heaven is “the eternal contemplation of God” or words to that effect.
If that’s the case, what’s the point? A God who creates beings who go through a lifetime of privations and hardships just so they can spend eternity looking at him? I hardly think so.

There are some faiths who speculate on this far more than the RCC. One fundamentalist faith I followed years ago said that the eternal afterlife would be spent with God and the angels in the business of creation.

After all (the argument goes), there would be an almost-infinite universe with which to work - a galaxy, at least, for every person who has ever lived. What a creative canvas that would be to work with!

That’s the God for me. A doer, not just an object of worship.

I think that you are correct,that "eternal life is an eternal cycle during which we live through and experience all the types of existence possible ;from the core of family life
onto the opening up to love and relationship to all of God’s people ,then on to experience and explore His amazing and wonderful creation .When we are ready under God’s warm guidance and Light we move onto the next . We never get bored because there is so much to experience both emotionally ,and in every other way .

God has already indicated to us what is in store for us, if we are lucky enough to be alive and functioning well in the modern world .The Church never talks about the fact that ‘heaven’ begins right here on earth, if you like ,and all that happens is that "heaven " is guaranteed continuation of the best of this, without the degradation natural to all material existence , including our bodies .We will not be exposed to the ignorance and the hatred of those who continue hate God and their fellow humans to the point of treating them with contempt , from which comes pornography, colonialisation, child abuse,
and so on, and on.
God will be always be at the centre of our hearts and minds ,shining in us and around us ,warming us, guiding us , until He judges that we are ready to to See Him .We will be
not be ready for this immediately ,but tested ongoingly until .

So some will continue with God ,while others will not .They will be left behind .

 

[TK421]

You don’t become “less you” when you go to Heaven. You become “more you”. You become the perfect version of yourself.

Heaven can be oddly frightening, because the idea of such perfection and wisdom seems intimidating, but really, isn’t this what we should expect? When a 5-year-old considers that one day they will be a lawyer, the idea of it sounds overwhelming at the time, because they are still a 5-year-old. But when the time comes, they are prepared for it, and not only that, but they shouldn’t want to go back to being a 5-year-old again.

Or likewise, when a 5-year-old look at what a 30-year-old does for fun, the 5-year-old probably thinks of that person as “boring”. But when that 5-year-old becomes a 30-year-old, they no longer think that. They still have plenty of fun. It’s just that they are older and wiser, and they have a different perspective on fun than what the 5-year-old does. As adults,when we look at young children that think we are boring, we laugh to ourselves over it, because we know that it isn’t true. In Heaven, when (or if) we look back, we will likewise laugh.

Heaven is an eternal union with God, in a state of beatitude. “Beatitude” means “Happiness”. Heaven will be fun. There is nothing boring about being in love.

 

[DONTTREADONME]

Thank you for the great answers on that. I was just wondering were Heaven is? Is it up in the clouds? I also wonder what a false Christian is? Im very confused, please help.

 

[PJM]

=Tadtomczyk;12705041]I know what your about to say. Your about to say that angels and god and Jesus cleanse my heart and I will be eternally happy. But that’s not what I want. I want to have the same heart I have on earth. I don’t want to be eternally happy. I know once I get there I would be but from the perspective I have right now, i just don’t want it. The best part about being happy, is knowing you have lived through all the saddness to get to it. But if there’s not a single reason to be happy, I just don’t see the fun. I want to have the same feelings on earth, I don’t want to be a freaky man, that just has a smile and is “always” happy. The best of life is pushing through hard times, and getting up and getting it right. Thats what I want and I love extreme sports, skating, snowboarding, cliff jumping etc. when you fall, the best part is to get back up and get it right, knowing you just went through hard work. But if u get it right everytime, what’s the fun of it? I mean, I don’t want to go to hell, but heaven just seems “too happy”. Help me please.

Our lives here on earth as God’s Created materpieces is not so much about what we “want”; but about WHY God has placed us here and makes haven a possibility:

Isiah 43: verses 7 & 21
" [7] And every one that calleth upon my name, I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, and made him" 21] This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise"

Even now this world is passing away. Temporal joy is TEMPORARY joy. A gift that is at best fleeting.

God Bless you and welcome to CAF!

 

[DONTTREADONME]

Thank you for the reply.

 

[benotagoat]

Our lives here on earth as God’s Created materpieces is not so much about what we “want”; but about WHY God has placed us here and makes haven a possibility:

Isiah 43: verses 7 & 21
" [7] And every one that calleth upon my name, I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, and made him" 21] This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise"

Even now this world is passing away. Temporal joy is TEMPORARY joy. A gift that is at best fleeting.

God Bless you and welcome to CAF!

I love your musician,it makes me smile, and nostalgic. There will be plenty of that in ‘heaven’.
The only times I have experienced ‘heaven on earth ’ was in Ireland when people would gather round a large fire in someones house, and tell stories , sing songs, and if there was someone with a musical instrument it would come out. The ‘togetherness’ ,I have never experienced elsewhere, in quite the same way ,and unfortunately it is passing as mondialisation sells our souls in the market place .
Of course without the elevation of our minds and hearts to God in the Mass from time to time, and often in private , the earthly pleasures lose this other ’ dimension’,infused with ‘light’ from above .
I watched a film made about Ireland last night and it was obviously made by an atheist who complelely ‘missed’ what it was about this country which made it different from others . There was in general in the people, a ‘warm light’ and innocence which
infused most people ,and in my opinion was only in a very small way, of the RCC .
There was a naturalness in the spirituality, which had more to do with the early pre- roman Celtic Church, when Patrick and the early saints ,many of whom were converted ‘druids’ had influence .When it came under Rome by force, it became more political and worldly .

 

[PJM]

=benotagoat;12711414]I love your musician,it makes me smile, and nostalgic. There will be plenty of that in ‘heaven’.
The only times I have experienced ‘heaven on earth ’ was in Ireland when people would gather round a large fire in someones house, and tell stories , sing songs, and if there was someone with a musical instrument it would come out. The ‘togetherness’ ,I have never experienced elsewhere, in quite the same way ,and unfortunately it is passing as mondialisation sells our souls in the market place .
Of course without the elevation of our minds and hearts to God in the Mass from time to time, and often in private , the earthly pleasures lose this other ’ dimension’,infused with ‘light’ from above .
I watched a film made about Ireland last night and it was obviously made by an atheist who complelely ‘missed’ what it was about this country which made it different from others . There was in general in the people, a ‘warm light’ and innocence which
infused most people ,and in my opinion was only in a very small way, of the RCC .
There was a naturalness in the spirituality, which had more to do with the early pre- roman Celtic Church, when Patrick and the early saints ,many of whom were converted ‘druids’ had influence .When it came under Rome by force, it became more political and worldly .

Been there:shamrock2: and Done that

One of the most common things I encounter as a Catholic Catechist is God Worship times and spaces.

Coming from outside the CC one expects to various degrees to be some hoe entertained, perhaps not the best word for what I sharing? ,

Godly Worship is ALL about God. How we feel about it is secondary. Divine Worship is not about “fellowship” which ought to take place outside of Divine Worship. Any and all efforts to marry the two lessons both IMO.

God Bless you,

Patrick