Basement Boy

Platonic theology is very similar to a sermon that I heard on the "basement boy" a few years ago in church. The "basement boy" is a parallelism of what happens to a human when they become content with the world. It is the story of a boy who spends his whole life in the basement staying satisfied watching HDTV, playing on his Wii, and eating junk food. He even has a trampoline and the newest surround sound stereo system. Why should he not be perfectly happy with all these things? There are stairs that lead to an unknown world, but what would bring about the desire to climb them? Basement boy rationalizes that the risk of going to find out what is beyond the basement door is too high; it could cause him harm and he has so many good things in the basement that there is no need to go. The problem with his logic is that he doesn't understand what "good" things are, doesn't know what "happy" feels like. How could he know what to compare things to if he has been stuck in a basement his entire life? In Platonic theology the world is our basement and we must get restless with it, the stairs represent wonder and we must walk up them toward the realm of the mind. This explains why curiosity is such a blessing. It is okay to have questions about the One who created you because that pushes you into taking the first shaky steps up to the door. If you didn't care about the Lord then you wouldn't be asking questions in the first place. Basement boy must realize that he is not going to find out what the True Good and Happiness is unless he leaves all his possessions behind and climbs up the stairs.

His conversion from the basement to a beautiful Godly life will be a complete recreation of his body. He will no longer dwell in the mortal body that lived in the basement, for it is not fit to survive in the presence of God. His eyes would not be capable of seeing the beauty, ears deaf to the voice of the Lord and legs too weak to stand. God's beauty is so great that it will create for him new eyes to see, His voice so powerful it will form new ears to hear and God will provide in him the strength to walk in this new wonderful world. Although the reward of the journey is great, it will not be easy. If he returns to the basement he will not recognize the things he used to define his life by and it will be an uncomfortable existence. He will become overwhelmed with the fallacies of his old ways and shocked at his earlier contentment. None of this will compare to the happiness he will find in God, the only Good. So what is in your basement? Is it food, clothes, sex, acceptance, beauty? Whatever it is, you must realize that, even if you succeed in attaining it, it will never make you truly happy. These "good" things do not even compare to what God has for you. Set those things aside. Don't worry about what you are going to wear tomorrow or what your friend said about you. Don't get discouraged when you look in the mirror. Know that these are not the important things. Get to know the Truth, wonder about who you are and where you are going, get uncomfortable with "things" and get out of the basement!