Let us say that you are a working person, someone who does what is referred to as the nine-to-five, and you have a three-day weekend approaching. Plans are made, small bags are packed, reservations are set in place and off you go Friday after work to enjoy yourself. Then, just like that, it’s Monday again.
Perhaps you have been blessed by the Lord with the financial wherewithal and wisdom in the ways that you are to be a good steward of His money and found it possible to take a two-week vacation later this year. Now, the details are little more intricate and time consuming, but excitement and anticipations abound in the previous months before the big adventure, for planning is part of the pleasure. Everything is in place, the flights are all on time, the vacation rental was more than expected and the enjoyment was more even than what was anticipated. Then you’re back, it’s Monday, again. Welcome to the transitory experiences of life, expectations accomplished, here then gone, nothing but a memory to hold onto.
We are human beings with human desires, we search out the unexpected, yet fear them in many ways at the same time, and time is our only enemy. It will not wait for us, it slows down for no one, it does not care what your plans are, time does not revolve around our desires. We look forward to an event, and just as quickly look back upon it as a fond memory, never to be regained even if we return to the same place at the same season next year. These are in a sense nothing more than moments that we try to hold onto for as long as possible, but grasp as we will, all will become nothing more than remembrances and impressions, you cannot stay where you are in any given point in time.
This is a very difficult topic for some, for the plans and excitement of any adventure can be in part ruined by the knowledge that we must return to where we were, where the point in time was that we tried to escape from in the first place, if you will. If we use the analogy of a vacation for instance, I must say that I have met very few individuals that take a vacation somewhere that they do not want to go, and so there is anticipation of enjoyment, but that expectation can be diminished before the adventure even begins, for we know that we must return, we will be returning to the mundane, the monotonous, basically uneventful repetition of the same. I know, I am guilty of this, and though I have tried for a very long time to correct this fault in myself, with much encouragement from my adoring wife, I still fail miserably at times. The anticipation is there, the joy and happiness of spending time with no one but my wonderful wife is what drives me to these moments, but it is the knowledge that we must return to the “known” that can inhibit my enjoyment of the anticipated moments of these times before they have even begun.
These “moments of separated time” can be more than just a burden for the Christian, for we know what we are looking for, and though we cannot find it here on earth, we attempt to fill these times with occasions that will at least help us to feel that moment that we are all waiting for. We are waiting to go home. Not that we are searching for a similar experience here on this planet, it is not possible, but to know that that moment of time that we call eternity is waiting for us, and that it can never be grasped here can be depressing to say the least at times. We will one day live in a never ending “now,” and will have no need to feel any negative thoughts when we are not in the presence of our Savior, for we will know that at any time we can return, He will always be “right over there,” so to speak.
When we are blessed to go on a vacation, I can honestly say that I rarely look forward to coming back to our place of residence, but my lovely wife at times does not abound with this same emotion. Though she adores the places that we visit, there is something in a woman that few men can understand, it is called security, and it can be exhibited in many forms. The house that we have resided in for many years, casual acquaintances, known surroundings can all be added to this formula, even money can be a form of security. The longer that we are in a geographical location, the more comfortable we become in that area, for the most part, there is security in the known. Neither of us considers this planet home, our home is in Heaven with our Lord, and so for me at least, I can find great difficulty in returning to the known, the normal, the repetitive tasks that must be accomplished, before the next adventure can take place. Herein is the main topic of our discussion in this letter to you then, are you comfortable here, or are you constantly wondering what is over the next hill, and is that hill Heaven or just another experience here.
I can best explain this if we use the path that each of us is supposed, even expected to be on, the path that the Lord Jesus has placed in front of each of us. For those that find comfort or assurance in a major degree here on this earth, the path is not something that they desire to move quickly on, not because they fear they make a mistake upon it, but because it means the unknown is approaching. The mature Christian realizes that there is no security in life at any point or in any place, his faith rests in Christ, no where else, and so the path is not to be feared, for it is Jesus Christ who we follow. In other words, my friends, there is no depression involved in returning to where we were, for we will not be doing that, the path is one of forward movement only, or should be. So, who are these then that find no security in the travelling of the path? The ones who seek the false security and anticipated enjoyments that the world still falsely offers them.
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2nd Cor. 5:1) This is what we are looking for, this is what the time that we are using to fill with the so-called pleasures of the world is meant to show us, that we cannot be satisfied here on earth. Enjoy your days off from the daily grind, find happiness in your vacation times with those you love, but do not try to make them a replacement for what awaits you. “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1st Cor 2:9) Every born-again believer is looking for this day, the day when we never have to return to the mundane, repetitive tasks that the word has laid upon us.
If you enjoy where you are employed, good for you, and yes you can glorify our Lord in doing the job that He has set before you in the world, it is how He has decided to provide in part for your needs, but do not put more into it than you should. It is for the betterment of the world; someone was performing that task before you and someone else will be doing the work when you have departed from it. If your goal is not to be in Heaven forever in the presence of our Savior, then you have the wrong goals.
When we arrive at our home in glory, we will not look back, for what can we find here that can even be remotely compared to what awaits us there. There will be no feelings of having to return to the daily grind so that at some time in the future we can once again separate ourselves from the tedium of life, life will be eternal, there will be no “having to” ever again, all will be available at all times. I pity those who have spent an entire lifetime in the workings of the world for monetary gain so that in their retirement years they can go and enjoy, they have missed the purpose of life. I speak here of the saved individuals, not those who are in the world only for their own sake, hoping they will by works enter into His eternal joy, those who have rested in the promises of the Lord have no place to search in the world for joy, it will not be found here.
This letter has been a long, roundabout way of saying just this my friends, if you search for happiness in the world, you will find it, but happiness is the world’s cheap imitation of the joy of the Lord. It is temporal at best, it will be lost and must be searched for again and again, and it will never satisfy. Time is not going to wait for you, and you can run all you want to try to escape it, but it is a race that you will lose. Our home is not here, lay up your treasures in heaven, it is the one place that will always be there when you return home, and it is the only place that you will ever look forward to returning to.
