Eternity

Eternity Beams
Every now and then I feel like God is gracious to give us tiny glimpses of eternity... like a beautiful beam of warm light in a cold, dark room.

Does this happen to anyone else? You'll know because it's pretty much the coolest feeling ever...

I sense it when light flickers through leaves on an early spring morning.  Or when a group of people are gathered together, living this messy life together, opening their doors and inviting others in.  I sense it in the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombing and the overwhelming satisfaction of justice served.  In a family's adoption of their child - once hungry and neglected..now given a new life and a reason to have hope.

Where do these 'aha' moments come from?  The ones that get you right in your gut...the ones that make you long for something... something that you're not even sure of what it is?

I believe these are glimpses into eternity.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

 ~Paul's letter to the Romans in Romans 8:22-23

Why Do We Choose Muck
So why do any of us Christians still live in fear?  With closed doors and task lists that have more to do with our goals than His?  With short-term planning based on meager and self-supporting ideals but lacking long-range goals with eternity in view?  Don't we feel the chains start to break free when we allow His light to peer into our dark souls?  Sure, it's terrible and bright.  It hurts the eyes.  It exposes the ugliness of how we once were.  But it's so beautiful and beckoning that we can't do anything else but walk towards it.  If we don't draw near to His light (His goodness, His grace, His mercy covering our sins...), it's as if we are choosing to hold tightly to our mud and muck.  An "it's-all-I-know" mentality instead of "it's-what-He-promises", ya dig?

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. ~Colossians 3:4

Do you ever feel like there is just so much more to this life?... if only we would truly embrace Christ and trust Him fully?  I don't mean trusting who He was on this earth and giving Jesus a high five for all the cool things He did.  No.  Do we truly hand over our lives and say...

Here ya go, God.  I believe Romans 8:28 that you work all things for my good.  I believe John 15:11 you when you say that my ultimate joy is in you and following your commands.  I believe Colossians 3:4 that you are truly my life... and I rest any of my plans apart from that at your feet.  I believe Romans 6:1-4 that you HAVE defeated death... so I am no longer a slave to sin... so I don't have to go about my day to day living like a slave to the world that I've been set free from.

There is Hope
At the end of my days, I hope this is the testimony of my life.  That by His grace, I lived each moment according to His plans for me - if it means amidst the glamor or smack in the mundane - because the more I follow Him now before I reach eternity, the more glimpses I get.

And the more I lose myself, the more I find myself.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ~Matthew 16:25

Maybe the reason we settle in this life for the next 'fix,' the next escape, or even just casually going about our days just trying to check another day or dollar or task off of that long list...is because we aren't trusting that when we jump, He will be right there to catch us.  And afterwards, we will find that we've jumped from a pile of muck into His very own arms.

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How to Jump
1. Jump into God's Word.  He has imbued each letter with the power of His Holy Spirit.  If you come away unchanged, keep looking.  Have a pencil with you.  Write three sentences in reflection.  Start the first sentence with "God...", the next with "I..." and the last with "I..." For the first, write what the passage - or even a particular phrase - says about God (whether The Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit).  For the second, write what it says about you.  For the third, write what you (by God's grace) resolve to do in application.

2. Jump into Prayer.  It helps to begin with a passage of scripture and meditating on it like stated above...maybe a shorter one and taking it verse by verse.  Meditate on each sentence.  Where you dig, you will find gold.  It will fill your heart up with the promises of God and help to combat all the distractions of all the many things around you that clamor for your attention.  Try starting with a Psalm... there is lots of heartfelt sentiment there in Solomon or David, etc., praying and crying out to God.  Then try praying it back to God, praising Him for how the passage points to Himself and Jesus.  Let your supplications (pleas or requests) flow after you've spent some time basking in Who He is and what He's done according to the passage.  It's a way of following the model for prayer that Jesus gave, which starts with Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, and afterwards comes Give us this day our daily bread...

3. Jump into His Arms. Jesus is not only the one who throws you the buoy, He IS the buoy.  Don't try to swim/fly/run alone.   God delights to change you from the inside-out rather than being tacked onto you like some flair attached to your suspenders.  Rom. 10:9 says if you believe the gospel in your heart and confess with your mouth, you will be saved.  Romans 5:6-8 portrays the good news (the gospel), that Jesus came to die for us...the ungodly.  Because He was perfect and a perfect sacrifice was required for our transgressions or sins, He died to pay our debt.  We are now debt-free, and we have access to Him both and for eternity.  James 2:17 also says that faith without actions is not a sincere faith.  Basically if Christ is indeed inside of you, you've had a spiritual heart transplant, and your actions or "works" will be flowing out of a new heart that's filled with a love for Jesus...not out of a sense of duty or self-aggrandizement.

4. Get Outta the Muck. The more I feast on Christmas desserts, the more my waistline shows it.  ...The more we feast on the promises of this world rather than the promises of God, the more our lives will reflect that.  Take a good hard look at your life.  Keep a time log.  Where or how is the majority of your time or thought life spent?  Compare that to what God wants of you according to His Word.  With Jesus as your buoy/rope, start to make headway in replacing what's wrong with what's right.

And don't go at it alone.  Find a church where you can find other believers who can walk alongside you in this journey from darkness to light.  Take in a deep breath and breath fresh air into lungs pumped by a heart that's been reprogrammed for eternity.  And enjoy that glimpse for as long as you can until we reach eternity, when all of His children will dance and sing and shout and enjoy Him forever.

Some questions to ask (and ones I'm asking myself):
Q: In what ways am I trusting Christ fully?  In what ways am I not?
Q: How might my life look differently if I fully trusted in the promises of God in His Word?
Q: How does a right view of eternity affect my everyday life?
Q: What are some ways in which Jesus demonstrated being set on eternity and fulfilling His purpose from God...to die?
Q: What are some practical ways I can set my heart/mind/actions on eternity?