Why am I Here?

A return to the beginning or why I named this blog what I did.

Some friends and I are reading through Randy Alcorn's Money, Possessions and Eternity. Alcorn's purpose seems to be to get people thinking correctly about the relationship between this life and the "next", as some call it. Very much in line with Biblical teaching, Alcorn reminds readers that life on earth is the prelude to the program, not the whole deal. He rightly asserts that most people, Christians included, have lost the sense of the eternal. "Many of us habitually think and act as if there were no eternity," he says.

Alcorn emphasizes the Scriptural truth that money, possessions and our very lives here are temporal (having to do with time) and our ultimate destiny is eternal (not related to time.) Maybe because forever is such a difficult concept to wrap our finite minds around, we tend to ignore the implications. People have tried to use spatial metaphors to make the point more clear. If time and eternity were both on the same line, time would be a dot and eternity would be the rest of the line stretching enlessly in both directions. This may help, but it still leaves one struggling with what "endlessly" means.

For me, there is a more basic question that even Alcorn may be missing. Why should I care about eternity? (Why does heaven always matter most?) Alcorn points out that "There seems to be built into every person, society, and religion a basic belief that good deserves reward and evil deserves punishment." Got it. What goes around comes around. You eventually have to pay the piper. Karma. Alcorn's thesis is that our treatment of the temporal stuff that consumes our time here dictates our eventual state in eternity. I don't dispute that. But Alcorn, like so many other Christians, focuses on the rewards heaven holds for those who act appropriately on earth.

I wonder if this emphasis remains rooted in our temporal mindset. Forgo earthly pleasure and wealth to earn those same delights in heaven. Delayed gratification remains gratification of the original desire. Yes, the Bible promises temporal things as reward; I suspect this technique is used because we can't even imagine what the eternal reward will be like, so temporal metaphors must suffice. The Apostle Paul said that “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

I can imagine some pretty cool temporal things. Perfect wind for sailing every day, bike trips with no rain, hole-in-one golf on a regular basis all sound very satisfying. But if I can think them, they are less than what awaits if Paul is to be taken literally. Alcorn quotes some really, really rich people saying that the temporal stuff never does satisfy. Why would we think that an unlimited supply of it in heaven would be so wonderful?

Besides all this, isn't doing the right thing here on earth so we can be materially rewarded in heaven a twisted motive? Pie in the sky by and by is still just pie. Heaven matters most to me because I will be in perfect union with the God who created me. I will be in eternal fellowship with the One who can satisfy every need I have. As a fringe benefit, I believe my relationships with my fellow travellers will also be perfect. Jesus said, "I and the Father are one," and he prayed that we (his followers) would be one in the same way. That is why heaven matters most. It is only there, in eternity that I will be completely fulfilled.

Still, my reason for behaving as I ought here on earth is not just because I will be granted perfect satisfaction in eternity; that would be selfish. I do what I ought because the One who paid my price of admission into eternal bliss asks me to. Out of love for Him and in recognition of the great sacrifice He made for me I do what he asks. And I want others to know that good has its reward and evil its punishment. And I want to make clear what true good is. All this is because I have a hope of heaven, and that is what matters most.