Caught Up with Life in Light of Eternity

     Several months ago, I watched a podcast which talked about how we can be enslaved by the riches of the world. The speaker gave an example of this from the discoveries found in the city of Pompeii which was destroyed by a volcano in AD 79. Because the catastrophic eruption, which destroyed the city, was so sudden, the population was caught off guard and many perished. The speaker in this podcast showed a lady who was killed from the event and was preserved by a protective shell of ash encasing her. It showed her reaching for some of her jewelry which would seem to indicate she either failed to leave her home or returned back for these possessions.  Her decision was fatal. The speaker was making the point that the love of riches cost this lady her life.

     As I reflected on this account, I had a different perspective on it. This event took place about 1,957 years ago and if she had escaped the destruction and lived a full life, she now would have been dead for approximately 1,900 years instead of 1,957 years. In light of eternity, that extra 57 years of life on this earth means nothing in comparison to what she is experiencing now in eternity. Is she experiencing the joy of being with Jesus or is she experiencing the torment of being eternally separated from Jesus? I don’t know, but I do know that our time on this earth is nothing compared to eternity. With this understanding in mind, it is amazing how tied we are to this earth and the amount of energy we expend to squeeze as much time as possible to continue living on this earth.

     One way many people in our culture expend this energy is with a bucket list. This is a list of things they would like to accomplish before they die. For some people, it is a list of places they would like to visit. For others, it is doing certain exotic activities like skydiving or bungee jumping.

     I am reminded of a family friend who was dealing with cancer and she had on her bucket list to visit as many lighthouses as possible. I don’t know how many lighthouses she and her husband visited, but she was able to visit a lot of them before she passed away. When I look back at her life, my memories of her do not revolve around all of the lighthouses she visited. I think of her character as a follower of Christ. Her legacy is not the lighthouses, but her love of Christ, which was demonstrated by her love towards her husband, her family and serving the people of Poland. The Lord will not reward her for her lighthouse visits, but for her faithfulness in following and serving Christ.

     This is not to say that having a bucket list or visiting lighthouses is wrong. God is not against our finding enjoyment in many different things. What is wrong is when we have a distorted perspective of these types of things. When viewed in the light of eternity, they are not very important, but they can become something that dominates our life. In our culture, we put a premium on retirement as the time when we can live the life we have earned and do all of the things we were not able to do when we were working. The culture promotes a life of self-centeredness and self-indulgence, whereas the Christian life promotes a life of serving Christ and serving others.

     We only have “X” number of years on this earth and this time has been allotted to us by God Himself. We assume we will live a long life and we organize our lives with that in mind. There is some wisdom in doing this, but if our focus is on the false security of stuff, we may end up like the man described by Jesus in the parable of the rich man as recorded in Luke 12. This is the man who tore down his barns to build larger ones to hold all of his stuff for retirement.  It didn’t end well for him, because his life was taken before he could accomplish his goal. "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?' So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (vs. 20-21).

     Fellow follower of Christ, when your days are over on this earth, how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered for your character or for what you owned? When you enter into the presence of the Lord, what will Jesus see from your life? Will He see wood, hay and straw or gold, silver and precious stones? The apostle Paul goes on to say, “each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3: 13-15).

     The woman from Pompeii revealed her values as she died with a piece of jewelry in her hand. It gained her nothing in this life and certainly nothing in eternity. As we live the latter days of our lives, by God’s grace, we must consider what we are holding on to and what are we striving after. We have only a few short years on this earth.  In light of eternity, let’s make the most of it in serving Christ and leaving a godly legacy for our family.