How we get to heaven

Each morning when I get to work, the first thing I do is check my e-mail inbox. It’s interesting the things that arrive in my mailbox each day. There are the business-related mails, the personal correspondences, the chain letters, and of course not forgetting the ever-present spam. But occasionally, I receive a gem that brightens up my day. Here’s one I’d like to share with you and I hope it brightens your day too.

How we get to heaven
Adapted from an article by JOHNNY C. GO, SJ
Most of you would be familiar with the scene from the first Harry Potter movie (or book) in which Harry and all his schoolmates are made to put on an old, ragged-looking hat called the “Sorting Hat”.

The hat is a magical one and possesses the ability to look inside its wearer’s head and access his or her inner thoughts. It is this hat that decides which “house” students enter in their new magic school Hogwarts – whether they are grouped with the wise Ravenclaws, or the humble Hufflepuffs, the sly Slytherins or the courageous Gryffindors.

In a way, the Day of Judgement is probably going to be something similar. We’ll on stand nervously in lines, in much the same frame of mind as a pupil on a first day of school (though perhaps a great deal more afraid). We’ll all worry about where we might be sorted to – heaven or hell. And we’ll all dread what the “Sorting Hat” will see when he takes a look into our head.

Of course, the “Sorting Hat” in this scenario will be none other than our excellent, omniscient Father in Heaven. And most likely God will poke about inside our heads and our hearts to see where we’ll fit in better.

But if you recall again how the hat sorted Harry Potter into Gryffindor, you will notice one very important thing. The ultimate choice of where to put Harry Potter was not actually made by the hat, but rather by Potter himself who inwardly pleaded with the hat not to put him in Slytherin. It was a CHOICE.

I’m not saying that there will be people on that day itself who will be pleading with God not to put them in heaven. And of course, it isn’t as easy as telling God we choose to go to heaven. Instead of thinking of that all-important choice as a one-time decision on the Judgement Day, we need to think of that choice as a daily one.

Our choice of whether or not we want to go to heaven will be the sum total of every single choice we make every single day of our lives. Every time we choose to wake up early to attend a service on Sunday morning, we are telling God that we choose to go to heaven. On the flipside, each time we choose to sleep in, it is the equivalent of telling God that we’d rather enjoy our pleasures now and don’t mind suffering for them later.

Daily choices
This article was especially insightful for me because it brought me to the realisation that every choice we make in life counts towards our striving towards the goal. It isn’t enough just to attend services every Sunday, be nice to people around me and read my Bible daily. Instead, I now realise that every single decision I make has to reflect that I have put my God first.

Perhaps that doesn’t sound too difficult on paper. But the more I think about it, the more I realise that a lot of the decisions I make on a daily basis are not very well thought out. Instead, I find myself labouring a lot over things that ultimately aren’t going to matter much in the end.

Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. – John 6:27

That pretty much sums up how we spend our lives, I think. I wake up early every morning to work out because this preserves my earthly body. I spend the next ten hours at a desk labouring for the bread that feeds that same earthly body. After work, I come home too tired to do much else that is very important. Of the 16 hours I spend awake each day, I think only about two hours are spent on God. If I sum that up, the total isn’t a good tally for the heavenward side.

I could always argue that looking after my body and my health is a commandment of the Bible. People always use 1 Corinthians 6:19 to argue that since our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, we must not harm it but should instead take care of it. But the subsequent verse says that the body is to be used to glorify God.

And I could argue that it is also a commandment in the Bible to work (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). But although the Bible says that Paul worked for his own bread, the Bible also tells us that he made many mission trips and we can definitely infer that Paul spent a large part of his life devoted to God and the only reason he worked was so that he could continue spreading the word – which is definitely not the reason I am working though I think it should be.

The golden mean
Obviously, the answer to my quandary is to seek moderation. That’s easier said than done though. Since joining the working force in May last year, I have been struggling with this balance. Trying to fit my work goals and my personal goals and my spiritual goals into one page has been an uphill job and I don’t think that I have gotten any better at it despite over half a year of trying.

I’m still seeking the right road, trying to make the right choices myself. So this article is by no means a sharing of wise words: being so young I profess to have none. Perhaps I’m voicing out something that other people my age are experiencing as they make an effort to feel their way around and carve their place out in this materialistic world.