delight

The heart is meant for delight. Paradise is our home of origin, the climate our species was designed for. Sure, we have adapted to life in the darkness of the world we have marred for ourselves. But, we were made for something different altogether.

And yet, our natural instincts, deeply buried as they are, still come to the surface at the most surprising of times, and we embark on a quest to create paradise again. (Our best creations come in art, literature, and music.) Unfortunately, the paradise we are capable of creating (outside of fantasy) is not suitable to human life. It is a singular creation, suffocating all others. In other words, the paradise of my creation is perfectly suited to the fullest actualization of my ego, my singular/unique ego. All others are suppressed in the actualization of my ego. They exist for the service of my desires alone.

So, life is full of suffering, which works one of two ways within us. It works to break us down, and in our brokenness we resort to reason and self-will (hopelessness), or we cast aside our purposes for the paradise of our design, and grab hold of hope. This is faith, and this is right.

Faith is right because of a peculiar truth: the God of hope has promised paradise, and promised to prepare a place for us, or maybe, prepare us for a place. This paradise is alive and fosters the fullest life, as it is modeled after its creator; infinite, unbound, all-embracing, creative and everlasting. Heaven is paradise in God’s heart and through his hands. Hell is paradise according to the fickle dictates of mortal humanity in all its weakness, isolation and suppression.

For more on the topic of humanity created for paradise see: The Journey of Desire by Tim Eldredge. And for more on the illogical nature of hope, as well as faith and love, see GK Chesterton in his work, Heretics.