Thus far, I have only found one friend that was prepared to answer the “am I going to hell?” question directly, and I appreciate his honesty and forthrightness. (Then again, I haven’t asked that many people yet.) I hope to find some more friends with that perspective nearby, so that I can get to the bottom of the matter more quickly. Otherwise it will have to wait until I do my trip around South Africa. (That will be some time soonish, let me know if you’d like me to stop by. I’d love to hear your stories, concerns, perspectives, opinions, theology, metaphysics and questions.)

Anyway, I’m not particularly worried about hell any more. Why? Because I love Jesus and Jesus loves me, and for me, that is enough. I wonder if Jesus believed in his own virginal birth. If not, it would be pretty sweet to be able to hang out in hell and discuss the humour of the situation. (In between all the weeping and gnashing of teeth, of course.)

And yes guys and gals, please, this post is intended as humour.

How do you share good news that does not sound like good news? You feel you should be shouting the supposed good news from the mountain tops, but you cannot. Because it does not make sense to you. This forces you to consider many methods, many different ways, to share news with people, any news, good or bad. You become very knowledgeable at the best ways of sharing such news, but it doesn’t help, because it still doesn’t seem like something you can share in good faith. It does not feel honest. It does not feel true. So still you seek. You also want and need to hear good news.

You start devouring literature. You read the best of what the news has to offer, as well as the worst. However, you specifically focus on trying to find the good. If so many millions of people think there is good news there, there must be at least some of it, somewhere? Your optimism and hope refuses to relent, until the good is found.

Eventually, after considering all perspectives possible, you see some light in the distance. There is something there! Excitement grabs you, so you pick up the pace. There is light, there are answers, clarity seems within your grasp. You realise your baggage is slowing you down, so you drop the stuff you were carrying, and break into a run.

You are looking for Jesus, the tracks you are following seem fresh. Very fresh. They shine with hope. You are gaining on him, you could meet him any time… An incredible story emerges, a story a few thousand years old, spanning many centuries, in a context you couldn’t hope to understand without some serious study. Years and years of scholarly research is made accessible to you, condensed into a couple of books. The penny drops.

You have found the light. You see good news, in fact, excellent news! And it is so liberating! It sets you free, completely free! The world suddenly makes sense, everything falls into place! It is news that is worth sharing, news that gets you really passionate, news that you are just dying to share with everyone, you can barely help yourself! So this is what they meant by sharing good news? News so powerful and liberating that you are simply unable to keep it to yourself! Your sins fall away… you are free.

It all comes together, the mountain tops beckon, you just want to go and shout. You have found your voice, and you find it is clear and confident. Suddenly you have an opportunity to put everything into practise, you can draw on the years of thought you put into the best approaches to evangelism.

You have found Jesus. The real historical Jesus, that lived, breathed, taught the way. Except, things are not as you had been told they would be, everything ironically seems ever so slightly upside down. Completely upside down, in fact. What was right, now looks wrong, what was wrong, now right. What was first, is now last, what was last, is now first… and your friends won’t understand. Your family won’t understand. It could bring a schism between you and your parents, families could be torn apart.

WHAT DO YOU DO?