Life Beyond

Not that long ago I listened to a very hard sermon*. Not hard as in difficult to understand, or impossible to stay awake through. Hard as in challenging and convicting.

I listened to it a second time, this time typing notes into my phone so I could pull out the main ideas to digest later. I want everyone to hear and feel the same words I did, because these particular truths are so foundational to our faith. Yet I know hardly any Christians who put these things into practice.

Unfortunately for me as a writer...and you as a reader of my writing...this sermon was so well spoken that there's not a lot of room for me to expound. But I'm going to try it anyway. Whether anyone is reading this or not, these are thoughts I need to process and put into action.

So...here goes...
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Over the course of the past few years, and especially the past several months, I've felt less and less connected to life here on earth. My pull towards my heavenly home has grown gradually stronger. I like that. Maybe it helps that I haven't lived in the same place for more than two years at a time since moving to college, or that I haven't settled down with a husband and kids into a house of our own. But I think the more likely answer is that God has been working in my heart, and my soul knows this wasn't the life it was created for.

Death doesn't scare me. Many times I hear stories of people with terrible illnesses or injuries who are taking every possible measure to draw their lives out as long as possible. I look at them and wonder why they try to catch hold of this vapor of a life like it's the only thing that matters.

Don't get me wrong - I haven't always thought this way. I used to fear death as much as the next person. And as for those who have no eternal security...I should hope that they cling to this life with every ounce of their being, because they need all the time here on earth they can get to find Jesus and His salvation.

But anymore...I don't long for life. I don't have dreams to build my own huge house (though it was once appealing), find a husband and get married, travel the world, save tons of money, land the perfect job... I aspire to only those dreams and desires God places in my heart. "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

I think of the day Jesus will return to earth to gather His followers, and it excites me. I picture myself hearing that trumpet blast, feeling the Spirit leap for joy inside me, and running out into the streets of wherever I am, jumping up and down and pointing to the sky like a child as Jesus sweeps in on the clouds.

God has changed my heart, and now I can say that this is the day I live for.

But as long as we're alive, thoughts of death scare us. We don't want to die. We don't want to face the unknown. We don't want to give up our families and cars and money and vacations in exchange for heaven. We want life to keep going long enough for us to experience that next milestone, whatever it may be.

Partly I blame our culture, which we are all a part of, and so therefore I blame ourselves. Of course we fear death. Look at what we've done for ourselves. We spend our lives striving to achieve the American dream, always wanting and always having and never satisfied. There's always going to be something newer and bigger and better than what we have. And we chase after it.

Many of us don't even want to die today because we've built such a home for ourselves here on earth. We'd actually be sad to leave the earth and be with Jesus.*

Can you imagine living like that? Being excited for the day you die?

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*Quotes from Francis Chan's sermon, Living a Life that Matters - "Living Eternally."