Elon Musk Dreams of Nearly Heaven
Yesterday I was walking through Target and saw Elon Musk’s new book staring at me. It’s got his face on the cover, looking all serious. Like he’s conquered the world. In some ways he has. He’s been, and perhaps is, the richest man on the planet. At least with his imagined fortune. I didn’t think about him at all the rest of the day. But then during my sleep last night, what came to me was Elon Musk’s Dreams of Nearly Heaven.
Traveling far? Just a little blip in space is all.
He was in a rocket traveling to space. About half way into its journey the rocket exploded and Elon and his crew were instantly incinerated. For a while there was nothing. No afterlife at all. Then suddenly, as if taking a breath for the first time after nearly suffocating, Elon Musk had this Dream of Nearly Heaven.
There was a wall with a gate.
The wall was white brick, and at the top were black spikes. The wall was very tall. Elon’s first thought was trying to climb the wall, but it was much too tall and slippery. Istead, in Elon’s Dream of Nearly Heaven, he decided to walk along the wall. Elon did this for what seemed like an eternity. His focus seemed transfixed on the wall, even though there was an infinite space in every other direction. But Elon could not take his eyes off the wall.
The white man dressed in white without complexion or irony.
At long last, in Elon Musk’s Dream of Nearly Heaven, he came to a gate. In front of the gate was a man. A saint? Elon didn’t recognize the man. He was caucasian with a white beard and was wearing a white robe. The man was so white he was nearly transparent. As Elon approached the man, he noticed the man didn’t pay any attention to Elon. The man just stared into the vast space behind Elon.
Standing in front of the man, Elon said: “What is this place?”
The man responded: “How should I know? You’re the smart guy, and this is your dream. You tell me.”
So close, yet so far.
Elon looked past the man through the gate and saw the most beautiful landscape he had ever seen. Blue sky, green pasture, lovely trees and flowers, with a gentle river running through it. And there were people, all in white robes, all walking around, and all white, nearly translucent.
Elon said: “Can you open the gate and let me inside? That place looks like Heaven to me.”
The man said: “Oh, who gets in and who doesn’t isn’t up to me.”
Elon then asked: “Who is it up to then?”
The man answered: “That’s up to you, isn’t it? I was sure it was up to you.”
Elon tried to get around the bleached, white man, but no matter what he did, the man stood in his way.
Who am I? Who knows?
Elon asked: “Do you know who I am?”
The man asked, without ever looking directly at Elon: “Who do you think you are?”
“I’m Elon Musk. One of the richest men in the world!” Elon exclaimed. “I made electric cars, rockets, bought houses, influenced governments in several countries, and had properties that would make the space behind you look like desert by comparison.” Elon knew that last part was a lie, the space beyond the gate was much prettier than anything Elon has ever seen, but he wanted to emphasize his importance.
Again, the man never looked at Elon and said: “Oh. Well, none of that seems to matter much here and now, does it?”
Can you be frustrated in Heaven? Elon was finding out, wasn’t he?
Elon was getting more and more frustrated. He had always been the man who could tell others what to do and how to do it and they all responded without question. He could call kings and presidents and they would pick up immediately and speak to him. But this white guy, in his robe standing in front of the gate, wouldn’t even look at him.
Elon began to wonder, is there hell? Is that where he is? Destined to stand outside the gate of Heaven, never being admitted? He stood eye-to-eye with the man and shouted: “Get the hell out of my way, I’m going in!”
But the man didn’t move.
The meaningless do.
“Okay, what do I have to do to get beyond this gate?”
The man said: “Ah, the meaningless do. You don’t have to do anything. To get to Heaven, you simply change your mind. Stop looking for control and start taking responsibility for all the craziness you’re experiencing. Find forgiveness in its place. Ask the Holy Spirit: ‘How do I see this differently? How do I see this for what it is?’”
Elon stood for a moment and thought, this can’t be right. Change my mind? Ask the Holy Spirit? Some imagined entity? I’m rich and famous, or at least I was. Surely if there is a God, He will be impressed with my life. Then Elon started to think of how many people he had influenced. By comparison, there were others who had had a larger impact, but still, he had impacted a lot of people. Some good, some not so good, but again, by comparison, there were others who had done much worse.
But what about?
Elon said to the man standing in his way: “But what about other men who had done a lot worse than me? Surely by comparison I’m worthy of an easy entrance to Heaven? How did they get into Heaven?”
The man stood staring off into space: “There are no levels to insanity. This isn’t about others. It’s about your mind, the single mind, the mind we all share. Change your mind, Elon, and allow a higher power to guide you. The only thing standing between you and Heaven are your own thoughts. The idea that you can control Heaven and storm into it with your ego is keeping you from allowing yourself into Heaven.”
Then the old man said: “The smartest, richest man trying to get into Heaven is like a camel trying to pass through the eye of a needle. Somebody wise once said that. I can’t claim that as my own idea. But it fits here, don’t you think?”
Hit Command ‘Z’?
Elon was dumbfounded. He had never considered that perhaps, all the wealth and inventions were not that important after all. It had never occurred to Elon that maybe there was another way of looking at the world. Maybe his ego wasn’t as important as he had imagined when he was the big man on earth.
When I woke up, Elon was still standing in front of the man in white. He never did figure out that Heaven is available just for the asking. That and letting go of your ego identity. That’s the tough part for us egotistical creatures. We think we know who we are. But the reality of who we are and what we are is defined by God, not by us. And we can’t take our ego world with us into Heaven.
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