Purpose Day 4: Made to Last Forever

Got two days to catch up on today as we were travelling this weekend so I didn't make the time to blog, but we did (my husband & I are reading together) read Day 4 on Saturday and took Sunday off while we drove all day, resumed Day 5 today.

Day 4 - Made to Last Forever

This life is not all there is!
You have an inborn instinct that longs for immortality.
The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears.
Your priorities are re-ordered... when you live in light of eternity.

There's lots of things I should be considering trivial in light of eternity but I don't think this means we should stop living, stop enjoying this world, or our hobbies, or our friends, but I do know I need a better balance.

Especially in light of what's going on in Japan, I think its a good reminder that our life here on earth is fleeting, its not within our own control and that we do need to make best of the time we have here on it, as it could be gone in an instant.

I'm not good with people and the last few years have definitely made me more cynical & bitter towards people, being let down by too many or expecting too much of others. While I long for relationships, I relish in my hermit-ness. Its like I want to be around people & make new friends, but don't make the effort to get out of my comfort zone enough.

I'm realizing that if I want to learn to have relationships, quality relationships, with other people, I need to spend more time persuing my relationship with Jesus. Only learning to love, and BE LOVED by him, can make other relationships real, blessed and have purpose. If I can't talk to Jesus, well, about Jesus, and about myself, especially knowing he already knows the good, the bad, and the ugly, how can I learn to talk to others & share who HE is when I haven't taken the time to find out enough about him. My relationship with him should be my priority.

Then, when I get to the other side of this life, when eternity begins, I won't have missed out on all the opportunities to have that relationship with Jesus, and I will have found some confidence in sharing with others all the wonders & benefits & joys of this relationship with him as well.

What is it going to be like in eternity with God? Frankly, the capacity of our brains cannot handle the wonder and greatness of heaven. It would be like trying to describe the Internet to an ant. It's futile. Words have not been invented that could possibly convey the experience of eternity.

Even in my lack of priorities for this life on earth, the thought of heaven & eternity still excites me. I'm a big fan of Randy Alcorn books and the way he describes & interprets heaven. Its like thinking of all the best & most wonderful sights, experiences, senses and beauty that you can possibly imagine here on earth and then multiplying that wonderfulness by a bazillion. I think of all the beautiful places I've hiked or would like to hike, and then think that God has created for me a hiking environment more beautiful, more awesome than any of those I've seen here, and He's made it just for me because he knows how much I'll love it, and love him for it.   That kind of love, creating that kind of beauty, overwhelms me a bit, but I know I am only just touching on the edge of wonderfulness, confined by the limits of my mortal brain.

So, I do like thinking of this world, and its wonders, as a staging room for the wonder of eternity... but I do think I'm slightly focusing on the wrong thing. What am I doing in this staging room that is at all purposeful or beneficial in light of eternity? Maybe I need to start there first!