“End” : Systematic Theology from Death Row : (Casey McWhorter & Jeff Hood)

“End” : Systematic Theology from Death Row : (Casey McWhorter & Jeff Hood)

Why do we allow our minds to stop?  We too often assume that the end is the end.  Many assume that death is the end because we dare not imagine any other way.  We dare not because we think we are so much more enlightened than everyone else.  Heaven and angels sound foolish amid the stark reality of a dead body.  Maybe what we’re talking about is far more logical than fairy tales.  Love is something that we know…even if we can’t explain it.  You see, we believe in what we feel because we know what we feel.  Love exists.  But can it die?  Logic would force most to say yes.  How can a dead body love?  Perhaps, love is not wedded to the body.  Perhaps, love is so much greater than anything that we could imagine…even death.  To the doubters, we invite them to prove us wrong.  If one could prove that love is an energy that dies, then we could stop the conversation right now.  You can’t.  There is absolutely no way to prove that love dies…there is too much love that sticks around after death…but you can prove that it lives.  Something that exists without death is immortal.  Love is immortal.

The end is not the end.  There is no stranger theological declaration.  It forces us to reconsider everything that seems so obvious.  Love always invites us to look beyond prepackaged answers…to a place beyond comprehension.  What is…is not what will always be.  What will always be is not always what is.  Time becomes strange and warped amidst thoughts about endings.  We must hold on to what we know.  Whether by absence or presence, we know love.  We know what we have.  We know what we want.  We know what we desperately yearn for.  Love is the assurance of things hoped for.  Can you kill hope?  Our consciousness hopes for love at its’ very core.  Hope never dies.  The idea and desire for love…lives.  The end is but a beginning.

Meet us at the gates of heaven.  Then again, why would there be any gates?  Heaven is supposed to be open for all.  Maybe a better way to say it is…meet me along the way to where love is taking us.