Famously, Jean-Paul Sartre declared that “Hell is other people.” The observation, which is made in a play called “No Exit,” portrays the conversation between three people who are isolated in a room by a valet who accompanies them there. They expect to be tortured or punished for the lives that they have led, but instead they discover that they are there to torment one another and they do. When one of them cries out, the door is opened, but none of them avail themselves of the opportunity to leave.
An existentialist and an atheist, Sartre believed that the only way in which we could define ourselves was in a masochistic desire to be limited by encounters with others. Small wonder he thought other people were hell.
In the Christian tradition, people can certainly be hell. But that’s not what God intends. The best of God-given relationships are those that nurture our growth in God.
Not all friendships are capable of doing that, of course. They vary in their depth and length of connection. They vary in the extent to which they allow for self-disclosure and meaningful conversation. But to the extent that they nurture God’s presence, they can be a bit of heaven.
Find and nurture that kind of friendship. Be that kind of friend.