Wes Seeliger has given us a fresh definition of hell.

“Most people picture hell as a lake of fire, with the souls of the damned floating around, screaming in agony.  But here is another picture...close your eyes.  Visualize in your mind a large bowl of oatmeal.  Cold oatmeal.  With lots of lumps.  Now picture the atlantic as an ocean of oatmeal.  Put yourself in the middle of the oatmeal ocean a mile below the surface. Get the picture?  That's hell.

"Hell is cold oatmeal. It is life without passion or desire. Hell is numbness, not pain.  Hell is believing there is nothing worth getting excited about.  Hell is a swamp of blandness."

Does that speak to you? It does to me.  Hell:  the deadness of a huge ocean of oatmeal in which we are caught.  It may look like this: sad...wanting joy; despairing...looking for hope; anxious...needing courage; bereaved...hoping for sympathy; lonely...longing for friendship; bored...searching for meaning; hostile...needing love; guilty...desperate for forgiveness; dead...grasping for life.

Is there hope to escape such hells?  Take courage -- there is!

Jesus provided the good news -- "I am come that you may have life and have it abundantly."