Hot as Hades!

There isn’t any way to get away from it. The news has been broadcasting its coming for days.  The local convenience store is out of ice. A car in front of me had all of the windows down and the driver was opening the door at each traffic light, to try to keep cool. Even Face Book friends are commenting on it.  When you to outside, you walk into a wall of heat.    

Accommodations are being made for the heat.  One friend’s company cancelled work because of the number of employees who take the bus, the Metro and walk. My sister is working from home.  At 6:30 am this morning, I saw a man mowing a lawn.  Camps are adjusting schedules to keep children safe. 

My act of defiance today is to wear snowman earrings. They don’t keep me any cooler, but they make we smile!

Yes, it is hot. It is also mid-summer in Washington DC.  The thought occurred to me that this three-day intense annoyance of hot, sticky weather can’t begin to compare the misery and agony of Hell.  I don’t often think about the details of an eternal life in Hell, but on this afternoon, those details were on my mind.

I recently purchased the Letters of St. Boniface (priest in the 7^th century) from a used bookstore, not being able to resist the bargain and the opportunity to read letters from the 600’s.  The second letter in the book was very disturbing, if not also captivating to read.  It reiterated the “Vision of a monk at Wenlock”. In this vision, the monk describes hell, purgatory and heaven.  Phrases like, “unspeakable groaning and weeping of souls in distress”, “pitch-black fiery river, boiling and glowing”, and “undying flames that torture forever” were used to by the monk to describe Hell.  This is what came to mind when I thought of that place of eternal damnation on this 100-degree day.

We want to believe in a benevolent and all loving God.  He does want us to love Him in the way that He loves us.  That means conforming our will to His.  He asks us to do this in spite of our society that encourages each of us to do what we want, when we want, no matter what effect it has on others.  None of us wants to recognize that following our will has consequences that could result in an eternal life away from God, which includes “undying flames” and a “fiery river”.

On this stifling day in our nation’s capital, I couldn’t help but pray for forgiveness for my sins, asking Him for help in doing His will, and thanking Him that this heat wave will only last a couple of days, not forever.