Day Four: Forever

…is how long it feels like I’ve been writing this blog! Not really. But really.

Okay, so this is my first blog post after midnight. That means it’s getting harder. That and we had C&C group tonight and I have a hard time managing my time. That’s something I can improve on. Baby step: write a blog.

“God has planted eternity in the human heart.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (New Living Translation)

In this chapter, Rick Warren quotes one of my favorite C. S. Lewis passages about eternity–the last page of The Last Battle. There’s also a lot of good stuff in The Great Divorce and Mere Christianity.

I’m not afraid of dying. I never have been, really. Pain, yes. But dying would be great. I mean, God’s a wonderful Creator, but boy, we really screwed this place up. It’s like, I mean, a toddler’s bed may be really nice and comfortable, until he pees in it. Then it’s not really nice for being in anymore, until it gets cleaned up.

I want out of here as soon as possible. I’m not going out of my way looking to die, and I know I’m supposed to take good care of God’s temple, but man, whenever it is God’s plan to take me away, I am and always have been ready for that day. Granted, I wouldn’t have very much to brag about on judgement day, but I’d be perfectly happy being Heaven’s janitor rather than being in this place full of sin, and pain, and war, and starvation, and all of the other junk.

That might not be the right attitude. I mean, in The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis talks about Heaven and Hell starting on earth. The idea being that, since they are both eternal realms, they extend infinitely into the past just the same as the future. That is, if you choose Hell, then looking back, you will see that you “have always been in Hell,” and if you choose Heaven, then looking back at earth, you’ll see that you have “always been in Heaven.”

So, if I were to take that point of view, I probably should be living as if I were already there. That’s not too easy, is it? I will ponder that.

I have been to only two funerals in my life, for my great-grandmothers. I realize that that makes me incredibly lucky–to even have gotten to know my great-grandmothers before they died, and not having had anyone in my immediate family, nor any friends who have died. And I mean, me. I’m still alive–unlike most people. How often our mindset is so focused on the temporal that we think of living people as the only ones that exist.

So, since I’m still alive and here on this sphere…I should probably get down to business.

God, help me to have a mindset focused on eternity. Bend my thoughts toward your eternal plan for my life, which is infinitely longer than the short time that I will spend on this earth. Keep me honest by upsetting my short-term plans when they don’t align with your long-term purpose for me, and help me to realize when you are doing so. God, help me prioritize my life based on eternity rather than immediate gratification. I can’t wait to finally be there with you, but help me to serve You as much as I can before I get there.

Amen.