This World

Do you yearn for Heaven?  There are certainly days when I see the things that are going on in the world…tragedy, corruption, pain…and say to myself, “Jesus, I think we’re ready for you to come back now…”

“There's tarnish on the golden rule
And I wanna jump from this ship of fools
Show me a place where hope is young
And a people who aren't afraid to love”

There is a desire that we carry around in each of us, a desire to be with our Creator.  This kernel of Heaven is placed in our hearts when we come into this world.  It is there in order that we not forget our Home, that we are the stuff of stars and of Creation.

“This world has nothing for me and this world has everything
All that I could want and nothing that I need”

I’ve heard a story about this band, Caedmon’s Call, where the father of the female band member talks about watching his barely-not-a-teenage daughter get on the first rickety tour bus, thinking, “what have I done?!?”  What an adventure he gave to her.  There are quite a few of their songs I love, especially “Hope to Carry On”.  But the one for today, “This World” speaks perfectly about the importance of our life here on earth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjEoaUTdFXw&feature=kp).

We can often spend too much time focusing on our “eternal” life, the life we will have in Heaven for eternity with God after we leave this world.  We can point our compass off into this distance, thinking that the way we live our life today can earn us a spot “up there”.  But when we spend too much time focused on what is to come, we can miss out on the work we are called into here and the ways we can be blessed by it.  We do not allow ourselves to be crushed by the world, but to live within it, contrary to what the world demands.  My life verse:

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

Think about it: when you are here in this form of an earthy being, you are unique in all of the universe.  God created you in such a specific way that only you can experience your life in the way you experience it.

“This world is making me drunk on the spirits of fear.
So when He says “who will go?”, I am nowhere near.  

And the least of these look like criminals to me
So I leave Christ on the street”

It is an understatement to say that Jesus, as a man in this world, was unique.  Although He was like us in all ways, He also knew that He was God incarnate.  He was constantly conscious of where He came from and to where He was going to return.

“…but now I am going to Him who sent me.” (John 16:5)

But we can experience the world in a way that the angels cannot.  The good, the bad, the joy and the pain; all of this will go away when we discard the bodies through which we experience these things.  When we eventually return to dust and enter a Heavenly life, we will no longer get to grasp creation in the same way.  Each day we have here provides us with a lens through which to view the world, to love, “to live deep and suck the marrow out of life” as put by Thoreau.  We will never get the same chance to draw it in again in this same way; for all of eternity.

“This world has held my hand and has led me into intolerance
But now I'm waking up, but now I'm breaking up
But now I'm making up for lost time”

So, are you spending too much time thinking about the life you will have in Heaven when you shuffle off this mortal coil?  Don’t miss the chance every moment to live in the life you were given, your life here on earth, the eternal now.  This world has everything.