Now, or One Heartbeat From Now?

My son encountered

his first street preacher yesterday,

soap box and all,

who notified every passer by

in no uncertain terms

that without Jesus

they are going to hell.

An associate bystander

provided a book 
by Mark Cahill

titled 
“One Heartbeat Away,

Your Journey Into Eternity.”

By this book

I am prompted to remember

how unwelcome

I have been and continue to be

in so-called "Christian" circles,

For not accepting the institutionalized 
status quo 
gospel;

i.e. for not believing

that the only access to the eternal

is through the portal of death

through which we pass

sometime in the future,

but is rather

an ever present experience

happening right now,

in each and every moment.

I challenge the notion that 
the kingdom of Heaven

is, as Cahill suggests,

one heart beat away.

I stand on the premise that
it is at hand,

always has been,

always will be.

To teach that eternity

is a future experience,

is a denial that reality 
the kingdom of Heaven
exists,
and that we have access 
in the here and now.