Heaven on Earth is Hell

My artistry has brought me to a point of discovery. I like dreaming about the beauty of heaven, and I like to imagine myself in a world without disappointments. Frankly, this is the only thing I get excited about or even find any amount of pleasure in. This broken, unhappy world makes me depressed because, for one thing I am not where I want to be, and two, I see nothing of significance for me here. When you hear about how we don't belong here and our home is in heaven, that is a true statement. It's also incredibly difficult to live with. When heaven and earth are separate and you are on earth, heaven begins to taunt you, and those taunts only speak truth.

A Christian artist in a pagan world is a martyr. This is not in the same sense as the martyrs of old, who physically died as a direct result of their faith, but today we face another challenge. Instead of enduring torture of the body, we now must undergo torture of the soul. What do I mean by this? Let me explain...

Idolatry is wrong: we all know this. Loving anything other than God with all your heart is considered idolatry. The most tempting idols are the things that most closely resemble heaven. After all, we are made for heaven, and so our hearts naturally long for the beauty and life that it offers. However, God has made it clear that we are to live on this earth for the time being. Therefore, heaven in its fullness is out of our reach, but we can see glimpses of it everywhere. This is where the artist comes in; our job is to show the world these little pieces of heaven, and point people towards the One who made it all. This would be a thrilling experience, except for the fact that we know how good it really tastes, and in light of where we are, everything else seems repulsive compared to heaven. Therefore, this temporary life is painfully meaningless. This creates depression. On top of that, God tells us to love Him with all that we are, but so often it is He who seems so distant and impossible to love - not because He is unlovable, but simply because we cannot feel Him. We do not know God as the perfect object of love that He is, and so we are drawn to the next closest thing - namely, earthly objects that resemble heaven. And so, the Christian artist is left with nothing short of a martyr's challenge: survive.

I speak for my own experience, so there are probably many out there who would disagree with me and say that, no, this life is full of excitement and joy, and I only have to look more closely at things to discover the truth of it all. Very well, you are probably right.... I do honestly think that I am on a journey of discovery and must go through the valley of death to make it to the top of the mountain, so I will not claim to know the ultimate truth of this subject. But I do think it is important to recognize the potential risks that could arise if one does go down this road.