hell

[Thanks to Matthew Gallatin's podcast "Judgment Day" and Fr Stephen Freeman's blog post "What Are You Waiting For?"]

Many think of horned demons in hell pushing people around with pitchforks. However, our sinful passions in this life will be our real tormentors in eternity, for we will be separated from our flesh which is able to feed them. Our souls will burn with insatiable desire and frustration because we will have all that we desire but no way to enjoy it.

Again, in the end will we all get what we have been waiting for and desire. Everyday I prioritize my desires and needs and schedule my day around them. Which of these are temporal and which are eternal? What will be left once I walk through the purifying fires and cross into eternity? I wonder if this is what the Lake of Fire is: God's presence. Some will enter it and
find themselves unscathed; others will survive, though greatly reduced; perhaps some will almost perish, but the purifying flames will compel them to repent; and others will be completely lost in the fire, for they will have committed their whole selves to to the world in sin and will have nothing left for eternity. Will they burn so completely that they cease to exist?

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. Though I have done nothing good in Thy sight, yet grant me by Thy grace to make a good beginning! And grant me repentance before the end!