What Can You Do Forever

 

I recently finished watching “The Good Place,” starring Ted Danson and Kristen Bell. It’s a sweet and quirky contemplation following four protagonists, recently deceased and entering the afterlife, that explores what happens to humans after they die. Namely: do they end up in “the Good Place” or “the Bad Place,” how is that fateful decision made, how should it be made, and what happens when they get to their eternal destination. 

There may some spoilers ahead, so continue reading with that alert in mind. The show culminates with our four main characters successfully securing their spot in “the Good Place,” where they meet others lucky enough to make it, only to find that their new companions are miserable. It turns out an eternity of everything they could ever want is, well, soul-crushing. And, it turns out that the introduction of a new wrinkle, that at any time you can walk through a door and cease existing, boosts everyone’s spirits because it sets them all on a mission to do everything they ever wanted to do before they make that irreversible choice. Of course, even with that boost, eventually an eternity of everything they could ever want leads each of our four protagonists to decide that it’s time for them to walk through the door, and having made peace with themselves and their friends, they each proceed to do that. 

Amid the hijinks and character development, “The Good Place” touches on some long-scrutinized topics of eternal significance. Whether there is a heaven and hell is the purview, some might say the central premise, of many of the world’s religions. Indeed, what happens after we die, whether it is eternal bliss, eternal damnation, or eternal nothingness, should be something that we’ve worked out in our hearts such that it influences how we live on this side of glory, even if we can’t possibly know with certainty whether we’ve figured it out or not. 

I’ll leave that heavier religious exploration for another time, although I am going to try to go a little deep with today’s contemplation, which is this notion of what it’s like to do something, even something that is incredibly enjoyable, for literally forever. According to “The Good Place,” eventually it gets boring and unsatisfying, so much so that an eternity of nothingness is preferred. Which begs the question, is that true? And if so, what is the allure of heaven? 

From the standpoint of the main characters in this chaotic sitcom, “heavenly” meant everything from philosophy books and global travel to go-karts and celebrity gossip. Literally whatever was most pleasurable to our protagonists on earth was available to them in abundance in the afterlife. And yet they all eventually chose nothingness over continued existence in their own personal version of bliss. 

I think, from that perspective, it is true that even the most enjoyable things you can imagine and experience on earth will eventually become soul-crushing when done enough times. My own personal religious perspective is that we were made to enjoy ourselves on earth, which includes physical and intellectual and social and material things. Not that there’s anything wrong with the ascetic existence of a monk or a nun, but also that there’s nothing inherently wrong with earthly enjoyments. 

But, we were not made for these things to be our primary pursuit. My own personal religious perspective is that we were made fundamentally to worship God. He is that glorious, and to render Him that glory is literally the one thing we can do and desire to do for the entirety of eternity. 

If I may offer a flawed but perhaps instructive example from earth as a metaphor. Let’s say you are a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan. I know many friends near and far for whom this is true. And they will tell you there is nothing more satisfying to not only watch their team succeed at the highest levels, but for them to be there to celebrate the accomplishment, and even better to do so with others similarly wired to exult in their beloved football team. Appropriate to Philly sports, that satisfaction is even sweeter when the team has experienced hardship than if it just sailed into and through the playoffs. 

Now let’s see how heaven compares to that. What if there was an object of worship that was more glorious than a professional football team, in fact indescribably glorious? And what if your ability to express and feel worship was not constrained by our earthly limitations of material resources and physical capability? And what if that worship came on the heels of the darkest setbacks when all seemed lost? And what if you could experience this bliss with the most amazing fellow fans, from all periods of history and all walks of life? 

And, finally, what if you were not limited by time? What if the celebration lasted forever, and your ability to enjoy the celebration also lasted forever? What if, in every fiber of your being, you were made for this exact act, to worship something truly glorious, to do so perfectly, with others, for ever and ever? That is what I believe. And while I am thankful for “The Good Place” to make me chuckle over what my personal version of “The Good Place” would look like (golf and cheeseburgers and Mozart would be pretty amazing for a very long time, not going to lie), and I am even more thankful for a far more glorious existence to come.