You know how I want to “worship Jesus for all of eternity”? By living life without illness, pain, or death to cut everything short and unfinished. I want my dead dreams resurrected into reality. I want the love of a woman (human or not) instead of another rejection. I want time to finish all that I can dream and do. Write and storytell the epic. Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before!

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (C.S. Lewis)

“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:15)

Jesus wants us in the world, but not any part of the world that is hostile towards God.

Give me a big Sangria and 72 virgins any day.

As for Balrogs? Several ways to go on that one.

“Do you remember how the race of Orcs first came into existence?” How they began as Elves corrupted and twisted by the Dark Power? Well, Balrogs came into existence in a similar manner. You start with an Elf, you get an Orc; you start with a Maia-spirit, you get a Balrog.

And when Resurrected into Reality in a cosmos without sin, would you get a Balrog who remained unfallen? A powerful spirit of Fire? Not evil, but still dangerous like a force of nature?

Like a Resurrected and perfected Tyrannosaur? Retaining the power and might and essence of Tyrannosaur instead of emasculated and “safe” like Barney or Dinotopia? A velociraptor who retains her kick-claws but keeps them sheathed for you? A Cobra who retains her fangs and venom but holds them safe around you?

Whatever happened to Resurrection of the Body? The New Heavens and New Earth? Heaven come down to us instead of us going to Heaven?

(I suspect Victorian Romantic Sentimentality had a lot to do with Fluffy Cloud Heaven replacing Resurrection. And we’ve had to labor under that misconception ever since.)