The year of Pilgrim’s Progress – the narrow less attractive path to the small gate

I used to believe that anything and everything goes. All is good, just as long as everyone’s happy. I believed that people are the masters of their own destinies. And, in an informal way, that people can be gods in their own right – they are responsible for their own fates. But, in a very practical way, we can see that this is not the case. If we look anywhere, we see that this world is filled with injustice. Not all circumstances in this world are equal. If we all were in charge of our own fate, then something truly has gone terribly wrong in many people’s lives to make them veer off track.

It’s this track, or path, that I am compelled to write about. For most of us living in today’s world, the road is as wide as we’d like it. Not only can we fit at least five semi-trailers next to each other, but how about the Seawise Giant? Artificial intelligence (AI) and all the added extras such as extended reality, are not making this any better. For, not only can we be masters of our lives and worlds, but we think we can design our worlds and shape our reality. Well, in digital terms, we seemingly can (maybe). But, we have to be extremely careful of hackers, viruses and other malware, even the occasional stalker. Even in the world of pragmatism, the one I'm very familiar with, we still acknowledge that there is a tangible body at the end of the experience, that holds significance in terms of the journey within the rabbit hole of virtual reality.

The problem is, eternal reality. I am the last person on earth who wants to say anything people don’t want to hear. I am a people pleaser. I don’t want to make anyone upset, and least of all, I don’t want people not to like me. At the same time, I really do love everyone. I really love the people I am surrounded by, am in contact with, and haven’t yet met.

Through the love I feel, I have a sense of urgency. Have you ever had a dream, or even been in a real-life situation in which you can see someone, or a bunch of people happily moving towards disaster? For instance, that they’re on a fast-moving train headed for a cliff. How about those dreams in which you try to scream or shout at people, but nothing comes out of your mouth, or they just can’t hear you? How about those horrible dreams where you see your own children jumping off balconies or under cars and there’s nothing you can do to stop them? On a broader, and now, ‘awakened’ note, have you ever wondered why there are so many wicked problems in this world that we can’t even really begin to understand, let alone solve?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past few years, not just as a cognitive scientist and design researcher, but as a human who loves life, and truly loves people. At big tech business events where everyone’s preaching optimism, I’ve felt doom. Dark venues, smoke machines, pipes, massive audiences hinged to every word of a few speakers – almost like surreal, dystopian yet optimistic, mega churches. It feels like we’re in a coffin already. By handing everything over to AI and the virtual, we are basically just nailing our own coffins.

I have been reading and listening a lot to people’s experiences in this world – their depression, anxiety, hopelessness and confusion. I’ve also been listening to how they have been saved from these states. Within my listening, I’ve ventured deeper and deeper into hearing about people’s Near Death Experiences (NDEs), and combining these with what I’ve been reading in the Holy Bible. In fact, these recollections – both the NDEs and other accounts of being saved – truly show that what is written in these texts are true.

It's really difficult for us, especially Christians, and particularly in this day and age, to step forward and speak out about the importance of: 1) reading the text in the first place; 2) understanding its importance – really, as a recipe for life (spiritual and bodily); and 3) articulating that Jesus Christ (Yeshua Hamashiach) is our Saviour – our way, not just out of the desperation we see now, but towards an incredible, and truly wonderful eternal life. We as human beings really just want and desire to say, “Everything goes, you can be what you want to be and believe in whatever resonates with you.” But, the cost of that is enormous, and eternal.

We only have 100 years max. give or take in this life (in your current physical body). I know there are scientists working hard on keeping us here, in these bodies forever. Yet, look around. Truly look around. Do you actually want to be here forever? Isn't that scary? Have a careful look, pick up the news, and really reflect on what’s really happening in the name of people doing things their own way. Is this heaven?

Getting back to the NDEs, the more I hear the less I can ignore. Last night I heard this account of a Baptist pastor’s NDE. It took me straight back to John Bunyan’s story The Pilgrim’s Progress and the importance of following the narrow path. Every other path seems inviting, easy and good, but there is only one true path, and that is thin and narrow. There isn’t room for interpretation or stretching. We can’t dismiss it as outdated, as eternity has no time. The gate at the end of it seems too small to fit into, and is certainly not as attractive as all those other bigger gates that make us feel good about ourselves. Yet, have a think about it. Have a real think about it – would you really trust a world in which you are the boss of the universe? Do you really want that kind of responsibility?

This life, in this body, is really short. We have a job to do, and an eternity that follows. The cost of following the wrong path is everything. If you were on a train, or a plane, who others can see is going to end in devastation, would you not want someone to tell you that you need to jump off and follow the little path – the narrow lifeline to safety? Wouldn’t you want that? Who would you say loves you more – the ones who smile and encourage you on your way, or those who jump in front of you to pull you off the train, plane, bus, skyrocket, whatever?

If you have read this to this point, I really thank you for reading. I love you, and certainly don’t want to offend you, make you angry, or make you not like me. I love you. As you can see above, the least that I want to do is go against the grain. I don’t want to upset anyone, but in a very subtle way I’m urgently yelling at you to pick up a Bible, read the Old and New Testament, and listen to why it is a question of life and death to follow the narrow, less attractive road to the impossibly looking tiny gate that leads to eternal life. There you'll find the answers to wicked problems without even needing AI.

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