We all know that we are going to die. That’s a fact. And yet people nowadays live like there is no dying. We desire success, we want to gain fame, power, pleasure, riches – the world. Just how do we live through the paradox of life? Which is right – to live like there’s no tomorrow? Or to enjoy and focus on today?
“Nothing is so important to man as his own state, nothing is so formidable to him as eternity; and thus it is not natural that there should be men indifferent to the loss of their existence, and to the perils of everlasting suffering. They are quite different with regard to all other things. They are afraid of mere trifles; they foresee them; they feel them. And this same man who spends so many days and nights in rage and despair at the loss of an office, or for some imaginary insult to his honor, is the very one who knows without anxiety and without emotion that he will lose all by death. It is a monstrous thing to see in the same heart and at the same time this sensibility to trifles and this strange insensibility to the greatest objects. It is an incomprehensible enchantment.”– Pascal in his book (Pensées)
In Light of Eternity
Men are mortal. Eternity is impossible. It’s that simple. No one can live forever. In the face of the Earth, everyone who has lived has died (or has disappeared). For us, death is reality and eternity is a myth. So we work, we play, we love and we create. We study, we tell tales, we make friends and explore. We do everything we can to live this life as much as we want.
We desire success – a word which has been variously defined by various people. For some, success is fame, for some, it’s status, for some, it’s money, for some, it’s love, for some, it’s charity. Still for some, it’s living life in light of the promise of eternity. Different people, different meaning, different directions.
But we all know we are gonna die.
Is this All?
“A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God” – Ecclesiastes 2:24
Solomon wrote about the vanity of life under the sun (apart from heaven). Notice he says that ‘a man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work’ – apart from the promise of heaven and eternity, our lives are going to be all about that. Food to eat, water or other beverages to drink, and work to keep ourselves busy.
A mortal life is boring.
Made to Last
God has set in the hearts of men something eternal. We all long for eternity. In other words, if given the chance, everyone wants to live forever. Because that was our original design. When Adam and Eve were created, they were designed to live forever with God. But the entrance of sin through Adam and Eve’s disobedience and lack of faith made sure that men ‘would surely die’.
We were created in paradise. And that is why so many people today long to ‘recreate’ in their own way, that sort of ‘paradise’ that they long for. You and I long for paradise. The paradise that we lost in the fall of man. We desire that.
Men were not only created for eternity, we were created for paradise. That is where we belong. We can never have that now.
Thank God men are mortal.
The Promise of Eternity
The moment man have sinned, we felt the disconnection from God. We know something was wrong. So we hid. God sought us out. He asked us three questions:
“Where are you?” – God is looking for us. Where are we? Why are we there? What is our current condition? Why are we trying to hide from God? Why aren’t we walking with Him?
“Who told you that you were naked?” – Who told you that what you did was wrong? Who showed you your nakedness? Your helplessness? Your sinfulness?
“What have you done?”– Do you realize the gravity of your actions? Do you take responsibility for it? Do you know the extent of the consequences?
It is quite obvious.
God wants us back.
Thank God that He banished us from paradise. Or we could have taken from the tree of life too – and live forever… Forever apart from God.
Then paradise would seem empty. It will not be paradise. It would be a drug.
God wants us back. We were designed for eternity and paradise and we still feel it in our hearts. And yet eternity feels like a chain that we have to carry with us.
“…nothing is so formidable to him as eternity…” – Pascal in his book (Pensées)
Sometimes Christianity seems like a burden and a cage that we cannot escape. We want freedom.
2 Kinds of Freedom
In this world we live in, there are only 2 kinds of freedom. The freedom of Christ and the freedom of the world. If you are under Christ, your freedom is to live in Him and under Him. To live in eternity. If your freedom is with the world, you are free to do as you like here while you live.
You cannot serve 2 masters.
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other…” – Matthew 6:24
Likewise, you cannot have 2 freedoms. As light opposes darkness, so one opposes the other.
“…For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” – 2 Corinthians 6:14
We are free to choose what kind of freedom we want. We all have a choice.
One life to live. One freedom.
Men are mortal.
Choose wisely. Live your life in light of eternity.
