This past weekend opened our
study of the imprint of forever that is within believer and nonbeliever alike.
It does not take one long in
this life to discover that the world is full of disappointments, trials,
suffering, and pain. Though we perpetually
work and hunger for more and we chase our dreams at a dead run to a point of
exhaustion, there is always something else for which we long and hope. There are happenings we cannot make sense of
and experiences that still leave us half empty.
Try as we might to build a home, acquire wealth, search out adventure,
and find unfailing love, we always come up short at one point or another. No matter how much we gather of earthly
things, they never quiet our dreams. And
yet, even as we well up with confusion and burn for some kind of fulfillment,
we do not take a moment’s pause to realize the deep implications of our state
of being. We have forgotten who we were
intended to be; we have “eternity amnesia”.
C.S. Lewis once said “If I
find in myself a desire which no experience in the world can satisfy, the most
probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
When our earth was created,
it was picture perfect. But sin entered the
frame and all of existence fell with it. And so, although we are not perfect, we were
created to live in a perfect world. Our
discontent with the present exposes that fact.
The desire for this forever is imprinted on the core of each of us; eternity
is part of the fabric of who we are.
(Romans 8:18-23)
As believers, we have been
promised that the worst we could endure on this Earth will be nothing at all
when the Lord pours His glory out on us.
That promise can reshape our perception of the here and now. As we stand in the midst of the chaos with
the rest of creation, we can know with certainty that our Lord is going to
return, and He will make all things right in ways we could never comprehend in
a million years. The earth is groaning
as we are groaning, waiting for release.
And when it comes, we will be given new bodies, restored souls, a new
earth, and a new creation to worship, to work, to love, to learn, to move, to
live forever in a “world more concrete than this one”. When it comes, the worst we now know will be
nothing to us.
We know that “there is
redemption underway right now.” A new
heaven and new earth are coming. When we
understand the bigger story and how we each fit into it, eternity makes sense. We
live like this world is our destination, but it is not. This world is preparing us for the next. Our bodies now are simply tents to dwell in
temporarily; new life will come to envelop us and bring with it a reality that
is more real than ours now (2 Corinthians 5:1).
Every culture and every
religion has some conception of life outside of their existence, but eternity
could not even be a passing thought if God had not given it to us. “It is illogical to think you are going to
get [to this conclusion] on your own.”
To those who are not
Christians, it is obvious that our world is broken. The personal reality of that admission is
that your heart is sinful and broken, “which explains why you have thoughts and
feelings that are not great”. Jesus will
stand in judgment of every person’s sin one day, unless there has been
payment. The only payment for sin is
blood and death; it can be our own blood and death, or it can be His.
To Christians, “it is hard to
tell the difference between our life and everybody else’s lives.” We need a better understanding of forever so
that we may live with an eternal perspective.
“We are forever people.” We were never meant to live in the world that
we now call home. Within each of us lies
a foundational desire for and dream of another world, one where no one we love
dies, where adventure waits for us around every corner, where true love and joy
exist in every one of our relationships.
If you look back across the entire human race, you will see this desire
spread across history. From the
beginning, hearts begged for the happily ever after and souls craved freedom
from brokenness. We know, because we
have always wanted the fairytale.
Consequences of eternity
amnesia:
- Unrealistic expectations and disappointment
- Too much focus on self
- A controlling and fearful nature
- Questioning the goodness of God
- Lack of motivation or hope
- Living like there are no consequences