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".
3 comments:
In fact, one of the habits I try to build into the way I look at every single circumstance of my Life is to ask, "What is the ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE, or the Eternal VALUE, here?" "How does ETERNITY come to bear on this situation?" And I tell you, it's really revolutionizing how I look at *everything*...
I have had to take that perspective on a daily basis with my kids at home and school. It has revolutionized the way I respond. Some things that used to be such major issues, now really don't matter in the big picture. If we spent more time pondering our undeserved future, we wouldn't need to spend so much time worrying about the present.
I am a worrier. I try not to. But this helps remind me to keep it in perspective.
Hi Courtney:
Thanks for your good perspective. It's true: Once we have begun to successfully and regularly imagine what things will look like once we've moved into the eternal realm, we then turn back to our "here-and-now" lives and can view them in completely different (and much higher) ways... It takes practice, but once you "see" it, you're never the same....
Have you read C.S. Lewis' sermon, "The Weight of Glory"? If not, oh my my, you MUST Google it, download a copy, and read it half a dozen times... It is absolutely AWESOME, and it talks about seeing things with this Eternal perspective in mind... Most poignant is the idea of looking at OTHERS with the perspective in mind of their being perfected by God... Here's one of the very best parts of that (but you have to read the whole thing to get the full flavor of it):
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations...There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."
This is (partly) why I say that merely "going to heaven" is NOT the main point of becoming a Christian: Being turned -- by God -- into a perfected, glorified Saint, who can then draw attention to some unique aspect of God -- as seen through our own eyes -- IS the point of becoming a Christian.
Anway, thanks, too, for posting!! It was cool to get an email saying you had posted something...
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