When I learned that God wasn't going to torture the wicked for ever and ever, guess what one of the very first thoughts to run through my mind was? That my favorite musicians/singers would be saved and not tortured in a literal hell. Well, that's pretty much what I was led to believe would happen to them if they didn't repent before they died.
It wasn't that I thought, "Oh great--I get to hear my favorite music for all eternity. Yay...Led Zeppelin! The Cure!, etc. It was just that their words spoke to me in a way no preacher in the pulpit at that time, or since then, really could. To me and many others, they were very likeable people (in spite of their weaknesses/indulgences). I was no better, though; that much I knew.
I became positively ecstatic over that thought.
My second thought was, Oh, great--now I have to learn to love my enemy and my neighbor as myself--what if when it's all over, I discover I don't like/love them as much as I like/love the people I do like/love? (I know. It was a childish thought, but that's the truth.)
Do any of you remember what went through your mind soon after learning that God would not torture most of humanity in a literal hell of fire and brimstone?