But it's only temporary: After cleaning port-a-johns, or plucking trash out of a conveyor line, or dealing with irate customers, or working long hours -- after enduring the rigors of his "typical" employees -- the CEO gets to clean up and go back to his corporate office, his golf game, and his sprawling house in the suburbs. The whole experience for him -- while insightful -- is nothing like the normal, comfortable, affluent life he can return to when the episode has been filmed. He can view the entire week with a certain detachment, knowing that this is not his true Reality -- not his normal Perspective -- and that soon he will return to a better life.
You can check out some of the episodes here...
It occurred to me today that the Christian is in a very similar position: Having had SONSHIP bestowed upon us by our adoption into the family of God, and because of God's great LOVE for us as expressed through the death and resurrection of Christ, Christians can live in the here-and-now with a stunning, new Eternal Perspective: We are destined for an eternity of Love and Joy and Gladness, a never-ending, wonderful Life of being completely, perfectly SATURATED with the Truth and Beauty and Goodness that are the very Nature of God Himself.
Christians should spend an enormous amount of time pondering what's ahead for us, because the more we can grasp it, the more we can wrap our minds around it, the more it changes our Perspective on the here-and-now: Everything that happens here on Earth -- whether it is death, or sickness, or misery of all sorts, as well as the good things in our lives -- is strictly temporary, and soon enough, this present world will vanish from sight and we will be taken away to be with God forever, celebrating as a family in a World we can hardly imagine.
Even now, we can begin to see "clues" or "hints" about that World if we're looking for them, and if we're asking God to show them to us. Indeed, God wants to change our hearts ("...be being transformed...") so that we can see and understand more and more of His Glory even now... But isn't it good to ponder the reality that this will all soon be over, and that we will then enjoy Life, REAL Life, with God, and that it will never end... ?
To the extent that we can practice viewing everything from this Eternal Perspective, we will be increasingly able to see, and understand, and be encouraged by the LOVE that calls us "sons".
