Eternity Amnesiacs

 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11...."We are so focused on the opportunities, needs, responsibilities, and desires of the here and now that we lose sight of what is to come. You cannot make sense out of life unless you look at it from the vantage point of eternity." Paul Tripp

Not long ago I wrote about us having amnesia when it comes to remembering who our God is and who we are in Him. In his devotional, New Morning Mercies, Paul Tripp writes about our also being "eternity amnesiacs." That is, we live without any real perspective on eternity. If we're honest with ourselves and with Him, we know how true that is.

A simple question for each of us is, where do our thoughts about eternity enter into our daily lives? What is eternal life anyway, and if there is such a thing, what determines our place in it? As the above Scripture says, God placed a sense of eternity in the human heart when He created us. Indeed, He created us for eternity. The fall of the human race in the Garden destroyed that sense and yearning as He intended it, but it still remains, though we've found, believer and unbeliever alike, a myriad of ways to dull and diminish it. 

Satan, the enemy of our souls has blinded us to the reality of eternity, convincing us that everything centers on life in the here and now. Our culture underscores this more deeply each day. Our senses and cravings are appealed to in every way possible. The old commercial that proclaimed, "You only go around once in life. You have to grab for all the gusto you can," is still shouted at us, though the proclamation of that message may change in the delivery. Some do live "going for the gusto," and others live just trying to survive. Most of us live somewhere in between. Yet eternity is real, and all of us will be spending it in either the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or in the presence (and torment) of the hater of the human race. What we do with Jesus is the deciding point. What have you done with Him?

It will be a tragedy beyond words to enter into eternity without Him. It is also a tragedy beyond words that so many who profess to believe and follow Him live just as oblivious to eternity as those who don't. We too are going for the gusto, or struggling to survive, or just trying to make it through with more good in our lives than bad. Moreover, we are as confused by life as those who don't believe at all. We measure and weigh events in much the same way as the world. We lack an eternal perspective because we lack His wisdom and discernment. We lack men (and women) of Issachar, those who know and recognize the days we live in and what we need to be doing. We're often as overwhelmed and confused as those in the world without Him. 

The worst part I think is that we spend so little time living in such a way as to prepare ourselves for what eternal life will be for us. How we live for Him here determines how we will live with Him "there," in eternity. It should not be that it is not until we grow old that we begin to give any thought to eternal life at all. So we go on living as eternity amnesiacs. We must awaken and come to our senses. One day, it will be too late. And none of us know when that day will be. 

Blessings,
Pastor O