Turning Hell into Heaven

I've long believed selfishness is the root of all problems--but the very essence of Hell?
Well, yes. This makes sense, if you compare Scripture with what experience has taught us. Dr. Timothy Keller's writing on The Importance of Hell explains why he often says, "Everybody who's in Hell wants to be there."

"The desire of the sinful human heart is for independence. We want to choose and go our own way (Isaiah 53:6.)..."

Demanding our "own way" results in the many things I enjoy writing about--from marital arguments, to sexual promiscuity, to children who are willful and wayward from day one.  Selfishness plagues us all.
 

"As Jeremiah puts it, 'No one repents . . . each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle. (8:6)' We want to get away from God--but, as we have seen, this is the very thing that is most destructive to us.  ...It destroys your ability to choose, love, and enjoy. Sin also brings blindness. The more you reject the truth about God, the more incapable you are of perceiving any truth about yourself or the world (Isaiah 29:9-10; Romans 1:21.)"

Thus, Dr. Keller defines Hell like this: "God actively giving us up to what we have freely chosen--to go our own way...to get away from him and his control...Even in this world it is clear that self-centeredness rather than God-centeredness makes you miserable and blind. The more self-centered, self-absorbed, self-pitying, and self-justifying people are, the more breakdowns occur, relationally, psychologically, and even physically. They also go deeper into denial about the source of their problems..."

Yeah, that sounds like Hell to me. 

"On the other hand, a soul that has decided to center its life on God and his glory moves toward increasing joy and wholeness. We can see both of these 'trajectories' even in this life. But if, as the Bible teaches, our souls will go on forever, then just imagine where these two kinds of souls will be in a billion years. Hell is simply one's freely chosen path going on forever. We wanted to get away from God."

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Many times, I've heard people (both Christian and non) express doubt about whether God would "banish" His children to a jail-type place called "Hell," where they scrape the bars and beg for mercy. But, what if damnation doesn't look that way at all? Perhaps Hell isn't a concrete area full of literal fire and prisoners planning their escape.  Maybe it's a shapeless void--a lonely place--where the sinner's soul consumes itself just as it always has. And maybe the people there are even more blind than they were on earth, still denying the source of their problems and, by extension, still completely uninterested in the Holy Solution...

What do you think?