This is one of the few times that you will ever see me reference a Clinton appointee as having a good idea, but I believe in being honest and giving credit where credit is due. President Clinton appointed Joslin Elders as his surgeon general. Dr. Elders had many ideas that I disagreed with, and I will not go into them here, but when she was in front of the Senate testifying about health care she said something that was profound, yet very obvious. Dr Elders in response to a question about medical care responded - "Well we are all going to die of something"
Yeah I know, what a deep thought. Honestly though, we really do not live like, or think that it is true, most of the time. We act like with enough medicine, medical care, doctors, attention and money we will and can overcome our appointment with death. We spend much of our lives talking about how the best way to live is, the dignity of life, the power of a life well lived, and quality of life for all. Those are not bad things, and they are important now, but in the end they all come up short and we all do die.
I know you are saying - "Great way to encourage me guys. Kick a man while he is down. What a gift you have." Hey. we know that this is far from a happy topic, but it is a topic that exists, and one that most of us do not think about often.
Recently I have been thinking about death more, due to my parents age, my aunt's death a few years ago, some illness within my “young cousins”, and several recent deaths in my wife’s family. Death is going to happen too us all. We really do need to live in a way where our life has a impact on those around us. A life like that is one where we are remembered by others when we die, but also one where we acknowledge that the majority of eternity is on the far side of the grave.
That is really my point today. In the process of overlooking / ignoring death we can also overlook / ignore our eternity. We live like neither is a important issue, yet both are guaranteed - you will die, and you will go somewhere when you do. Our lifestyle is geared to live live live, go go go, run run run, attain attain attain, and never worry about tomorrow, yet eternity is really all we are living our life for now. What we live for, and how we live now, speaks to where we plan to live in eternity.
I know that the majority of you know everything that I have said above, but I guess I just wanted to remind you that this is really just a short walk to the door that leads to a 1,000,000+ mile journey called eternity. Those that call themselves Christians should remember to live like we have a future that is longer then a few more years.
To me our life leading to eternity is a lot like the Asian view of marriage. That is the view that says marriage should begin as a slow simmer which leads to a boil. Another way to say that is marry someone you like, and then grow to love them. The lesson in that for us is that we need to build up to eternity, not get surprised by it when it arrives. We need to learn that our eternity is where we are really going to live, this is just a lead up to it, and while we are here we should live in a devoted fashion to what our eternity holds.
God promised us a perfect place to spend eternity. Though none of us can fully understand what Heaven will be like until we get there, I do think we can have a pretty good idea of what a lot of Heaven will be like, and from what I know it sounds exciting. I am personally excited about Heaven for several reasons. First of all, God promised us that it would be great. Secondly, He gave us some ideas about and views of it in the Bible. Third, God then sent us the Holy Spirit to give us even more insight about Heaven personally. Finally, and most importantly, God does not break His promises or lie.
Honestly though, I have not always been excited about Heaven. There have been many times in my own life where I viewed Heaven as nothing more then a better place to go then Hell. I have wondered a lot about just how exciting Heaven would be. The idea of eternal worship really did not sound that exciting when all I have experienced is earthly worship and when I did not have the proper understanding of what Heaven would like.
The truth about earthly worship is that no matter how Godly we are, we all get tired of it after a few hours. I know that there has been many a time personally when I have been in church and extremely bored. Understand, that is meant with any disrespect or slight to all the pastors, teachers and worship leaders out there. Remember as well, that I am one of you, so no eggs tossing. In the end, that view - of a boring heaven - was due to my nature, my lack of understanding, my lack of knowledge, my lack of study on the topic, and my culturally short attention span.
As I have mentioned recently, my view of Heaven has shifted significantly because I have been reading Heaven by Randy Alcorn. That book, and my study along with it, has really changed A LOT of my thoughts about eternity. What has not changed though is the fact that I trust God enough to know that it will be great, even if my minds description of Heaven has not always sounded exciting in the past. God promises me that it will be great, He told me about some of it in the Bible and the parts that He describes sounds great, and He sent the Holy Spirit to personally give me even more ideas about how Heaven will be. So, I believe it will be all that He says and most of what I imagine. Simply, I am not going to rest on my human experience and limited knowledge to dictate my eternal resting place.
Our eternity is set not because of what we do, when we do it, how often we do it, etc, but because of our relationship with Christ. Christ desires and only wants the best for us. With that understanding, why do we live like we have to cram a eternity of fun into this side of heaven. God is pure joy, happiness, and love, and when we are in His presence it will be great. Until we reach heaven our life will always be lacking and boring at times. We will likely suffer all sorts of disappointments and frustrations, and that is the best we can hope for. That reality - one what includes disappointments and frustrations - does not even include the possibility of direct persecution because of our faith. So, remember as bored as you may think your life is, it could be far worse.
Those facts are not what we need to look at though. We are heirs to Heaven via the work of Jesus on the cross for us. That is what we really need to remember. Our lives get better after we die because we go to heaven, not hell. To finalize this point, I will turn to the words of that beautiful spoof of a Southern Gospel song - "Heaven Yes, Hell No" done by Otis Forrest. Today I say just that - “Heaven Yes, Hell No”
Have a great day and rejoice not in our current struggles but in our eternal rewards. Stay strong and be courageous, while living for the long term joy of Heaven not the short term feelings of today.
