Did you miss part one? Go to Enjoy Life: From Meaningless to Meaningful
When my own, beautiful and kind mother-in-law was on her final journey to death our family was blessed to not only weep but laugh, to mourn and to dance (vs 4). We experienced great love and healing. Immense sorrow and pain. On what, we discovered the next morning, was to be her final night, I was blessed to be the one to check in on her about 2:00am and give her the last dose of pain medication. I sat by her side yearning to beg her to not leave me. Yet, I knew that was unfair. It would soon be her appointed time to go to the Father, to have her earthly, cancer-ridden body die. So, I held her warm hand and laid my head against her slowly beating heart. A final gift for both of us. For me to remember her until my last day.
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 may 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 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. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit— immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”
CS Lewis
We will all die. For some it may seem too soon or too tragic. It’s the opposing truth to Satan’s statement, “Surely you will not die.” The question is, for whom shall you live? There are no “ordinary” people walking around as Lewis points out. They are either children of God or of the devil. That is where our end lies. That is why, as children of God, we should feel a sense of urgency to share the saving message of Jesus Christ. To share His message of pilgrimage, not prison. It is not a game of “what if” we are playing but of when.
Solomon asks, “For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?” Our daily toil for things other than God is wiped away in the cycles of life. No one will care about the wealth or things you amass or how many rungs you fought for on the corporate ladder. Or even how good you were at keeping your house. They will remember your faithfulness to living in the fruit of the spirit – with love, kindness, gentleness. They will remember that you helped bring them out of darkness. But best of all God, Himself, will remember your love and obedience to Him and count you righteous.
According to the atheist, life comes spontaneously out of the cosmic slime. All life springs from inert or nonliving matter. Life comes from non-life through evolution. Our origin, in other words, is out of death. Since there is no life after death, our destiny is death. What then is the point or value of life? Life is merely an unnecessary chance interruption in the midst of cosmic death. For the believer, on the other hand, God is our creator. We are given the gift of life. Our destiny in Christ is eternal life. Death is merely a very temporary interruption in the midst of cosmic life. “
Arthur W. Lindsley
To think that “this is it” or to imagine heaven just being a cozy little village lends itself to leading the “meaningless life.” But God is a god of hope. He is the promise keeper. And His Word calls for us to live a life looking forward to being with Him in all eternity. Surrounded by love and light. We are not Gnostics. We don’t seek death and the release of our useless bodies. We are children of the God who gave us physical bodies to live in a physical world as a temporary station to hone us, to mold us, to prune us into the new Adams and Eves. And God wants every single one of us healed and to come home.
Death comes to us all. Let’s enjoy this earthly life we have, for however long, preparing us and others for our eternal home.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
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