As Christians, we believe in ‘the life everlasting’. That’s an awful long time, is it not? So how does this affect our life now? The best way to think about it is to picture what our perspective on this life will be, 10 million years from now. When we’re sitting in heaven in 10 million years’ time, do you think:
- We will be boasting over how much money we made, given everything we ever need or want is given us in heaven?
- We will be reminiscing on the places we travelled to in our present decaying and groaning version of planet earth, given the new earth will be perfect?
- We will be secure in the fact that our earthly family loved us, given we’ve been living with the God of the universe for over 10 million years, who lives us perfectly?
Do you think we’ll be proud of our nice house in this life, or how much sex we had, or how important our job was, or what impact we had on this world? As Qohelet (the author of Ecclesiastes) tells us, all these things are meaningless.
The only thing that will really matter in 10 million years’ time is our relationships:
- First and foremost is our relationship with God. If heaven is going to be an eternity of praising and worshipping our creator, don’t you find it strange that many Christians spend so little time doing that in this life?
- Then comes relationships with others. If we want to spend eternity with our loved ones, rather than them be eternally condemned, then we must tell them the good news about Jesus.
As Christians, we have no excuse for throwing our lives away pursuing meaningless ends. If we believe in the life everlasting, it should shape how we live now. So spend some time this week evaluating your present life from the perspective of 10 million years from now.
