A friend of mine is still single in his 30’s, and I asked how he doesn’t become discouraged about being alone. He said at any moment he might find the girl of his dreams. It might be tomorrow. If he knew he would meet her tomorrow, he would be very happy today and not worry about it. He doesn’t have that guarantee, but he has decided to act like it. He has decided to be happy because he believes that change is coming soon in his life.
We aren’t guaranteed to find the ideal spouse, but I liked
my friend’s perspective. Instead of being sad that something might never
happen, he has chosen to be excited that it might happen at any time.
As I was thinking about that this morning, I began to think
about eternity. Sometimes we feel like death is so far away. Maybe we are
thinking of heaven and going to be with the Lord, and it seems so far away as we
are going through trials on this earth. At other times, death can seem very
scary, and the hope is that it will be far away.
Life is so fragile. Do we realize how fragile it really is?
A young person dies in a car crash, and it shocks us because
it seems like they should have had another 50 years of life left.
An elderly person suffers for years with a terminal illness,
and it seems like death would be merciful but yet it doesn’t come.
With COVID, we have seen so many people die who were
relatively healthy with years of life left.
Sometimes death is sudden, and sometimes it’s not.
The promise for believers is that to be absent from the body
is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). That could be tomorrow, or next
year, or in 20 years. Some of us know that it will be sooner rather than later,
but the truth is that no one really knows.
What would change if we lived like we were going to be with Christ
tomorrow?
Imagine it. Would you worry about what your finances will
look like in ten years? Would you worry about where your career will go? About what
somebody said to you at the grocery store when they were having a bad day? Even
about having a full tank of gas or what you are going to eat.
All those things fade in the light of eternity, and we
realize what really matters to us.
Going back to my friend, does he just sit around waiting for
a partner to show up? No, he goes about his business, still washing the dishes,
planning for the future, and keeping his eyes open. What difference does his
mentality make? He’s doing the same things he would normally do.
Yet, his mentality puts everything into perspective. It
allows him to be satisfied with what he has right now, because he believes
something better is coming soon.
For believers, this principle has so many wonderful
implications. We know something better will be coming soon. We know that we are
one step away from being with the Lord.
I truly believe that if we begin to look at life through
this lense, we will be able to find satisfaction regardless of our circumstances
because we can know they are only temporary. Your situation, crisis,
struggle, etc. won’t last forever, and if you are a believer, you will have a
good ending no matter what happens right now. Right now is not even a drop in
the bucket of eternity, so remember that the next time life gets overwhelming.
Change is coming, and it could be any day.
