Bob loved to play golf, and in fact, he was quite good at it. he had honed his skills to perfection. The PGA had come calling, and now he was on the 18th green at the Masters. The only thing keeping him from winning the coveted green jacket was a 3 foot putt. He approaches the ball, settles in, and proceeds to rim the cup. In the next moment, he is at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, California. Again he must sink an easy putt and misses it. The next moment he is on a course in Scotland. It is the Ryder Cup and he is playing the United Kingdom’s best player. Again he misses an easy putt and loses the match. Then he is back at the Masters.
Elsewhere, Gordon is on the 1-yard line, it’s 4th down, 5 seconds to go in the game. If he scores they win the game. The ball is snapped, the quarterback hands him the ball, and he is stopped at the one-yard line. Again they line up and the whole thing is done again. Over and over it is repeated.
Elsewhere, Ron is at the plate. It is the deciding game of the World Series. They are behind by three runs, bases are loaded, and the count is 3 balls and 2 strikes. His senses are so acute he can see the stitching on the ball. The pitcher winds up and hurls. He can see that it is a fastball coming right down the middle, right into his wheelhouse. He waits and swings. The ball pops into the catcher’s mitt. Then the whole thing starts all over again.
Elsewhere, Rudy is defending the goal. It’s the final game of the Stanley Cup, and he is having a bad night. He couldn’t block a shot that night. The puck kept getting past him, and the game was lasting an eternity.
Scenarios like this were playing out everywhere. In Hell, there are different degrees and locations. The Fire and Brimstone area is for all the hard cases. Where Bob, Gordon, Ron, and Rudy were is called Almost But Not Quite. Here the people went who were honest, law-abiding citizens. The philanthropists, the pillars of their communities, and basically the good people. The reason they were here was because they had never accepted Christ as their Savior. Now they were going through eternity failing at their vocations. It was a punishment that ate at them, one they would endure for eternity.
Throughout the area, there were pitiful examples of failure exhibited. Opera singers who couldn’t hit a high C, Real estate agents who couldn’t make a sale, car dealers who couldn’t sell a car, and firemen who couldn’t put out a fire. The possibilities were endless. Groans of anguish and despair could be heard as each person failed over and over again. Their own individual hell was almost more than they could bear.
The only thing they were thankful for was that they weren’t in the other place. They got an occasional whiff of the stench of fire and brimstone. Every once in a while, they would hear a pitiful request for water. It made them try harder, but they still failed.
It is said that constant failure can be hell. No truer words have ever been spoken!
April 22, 2021