Why would a loving God send people to Hell?

Does this question frustrate anyone else?

I was thinking about how this question comes up a lot and how mislead it feels and just wanted to let my thoughts out on it....

It’s a long post, but I’d love to know what other people think about my understanding... thanks for reading :)

The first problem I have with this question is that it implies that God WOULD send people to Hell, when this could not be further from the truth. God wants us to come to HIM. He wants us to let him into our lives and wants us to come to be with him in Heaven after our time on earth is up. We are taught this over and over and over in churches, in The Bible etc.

Hold that thought.... the next thing I always think about is that I believe a lot of people have the wrong idea of what Hell is. Hell is not “the eternal naughty corner” where God sends us to be punished. Similarly, Heaven is not the prize or the reward for living Gods way. God is love. God is not in Hell. If God is not in Hell, then love is not in Hell. Hell is simply the absence of God and therefore, the absence of Love.

So an eternity without ever feeling love or feeling loved (by others, buy yourself etc) sounds a lot like Hell to me. Not somewhere I want to be at all. Luckily, God doesn’t want any of us to be away from him for eternity. He wants us to choose to be with him.

When people choose not to let God unto their lives, they are choosing to live away from God. God doesn’t want us to make that choice, but because he loves us he gives us the choice. “If you love something, set it free” kinda deal. We aren’t forced to come back to God.

So at the end of the day, if you choose not to be with God, you won’t be with him. That’s that. The thing I think a lot of people who ask this question don’t get is that not being with God IS Hell. God doesn’t send people to be away from him. He just accepts when they make their own choice to be away from him.