Spiritual and Emotional Themes

Heaven, Hell, and the Meaning of Life

Life can be tough when we don’t think there’s a point to it all.

Bee with a Purpose in Life

As a teenager, I was fond of Existentialism and its dreary view of human nature. I read Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit multiple times and used it, and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” as inspirations for somber plays of my own. Unfortunately, I lacked the sense of humor that saved their writing. At the time, I considered myself to be a suffering artist, and I didn’t have the perspective that would let me laugh at myself.

That was forty years ago. Now the memory of Sartre and Beckett is dim. Life no longer seems pointless, nor do I fall prey to marvelous fits of melancholy. Nor do I see humans beings as self-centered, ugly, and nasty. At least, not at their core.

In No Exit, the characters are nasty. Three people have died and gone to Hell, which means they must spend eternity awake, eyes open, and trapped in a room with people they don’t get along with. Actually, I suspect these three characters didn’t get along with anyone.

Story of Heaven and Hell

Sartre’s play reminds me of that story with the soup and the long-handled spoons that describes the difference between Heaven and Hell.

For those who haven’t heard it before, in Hell, there’s a big pot of delicious-smelling soup, around which sit all the miserable specimens trapped there. Each of them has a long spoon with which to eat; long, you see, so it can reach into the soup.

However, when the people try to put the filled bowl into their mouths, the handle is so long, the bowl swings way past their heads. They knock their handle into other handles, spill the soup, and bash each other with the spoons. They’re miserable. Their stomachs are empty, and they can’t figure out how to fill them.

In Heaven, we see something different. Oh, it’s the same in some ways. There’s a pot of soup, long-handled spoons, and dead people sitting around. But here, everyone is happy, their stomachs full.

How could that be? Because they’re feeding each other.

No Exit, Hell, and Heaven

No Exit is like Hell, a place where people take no responsibility for their own happiness, certainly have no interest in making others happy, and see no point in existence except, perhaps, for pursuing pleasure.

In Heaven, on the other hand, people care about one another, they take turns, they accept responsibility for finding answers to their problems. But not just any answers. Answers that take care of, not only their own needs, but also the needs of the whole community.

What we see in No Exit and in the story of Heaven and Hell, is that when we care only about our own pleasure, we end up as miserable as we make everyone else.

Finding Meaning that Brings Joy

When I was a teenager, I thought that Sartre’s grim view was the truth of life. Now I know there’s another truth: we are divine creatures, at least on some level, and if we’re willing to accept responsibility for our lives, we can make those lives into something beautiful. If we’re willing to accept responsibility, we can find a meaning in life that brings us joy, and also brings joy to those around us.

That may actually be what Sartre was trying to say. In an article by he wrote defending his beliefs, Sartre talks about our need to accept responsibility for our lives. He means, as opposed to depending on a Higher Power, but believing in something larger than ourselves does not mean we have no responsibility. Indeed, no Higher Power will make us be kind, force us to find hope, or badger us until we bring peace rather than hostility to the world.

We have choice. We can choose to create Hell or create Heaven, and I think the purpose of our lives is to create Heaven on Earth. It took me years to decide that, but now that I have, I am happier.

Happiness may not be the purpose of life, but if it were, that wouldn’t be so bad. For true happiness comes from caring about those around us as much as we care about ourselves. If we give and take, feeding others and allowing them to feed us, we may find ourselves in Heaven. And that may be all the meaning and purpose we need.

In faith and fondness,
Rev. Barbara Stevens