to infinity.
On birthdays, it’s easy to reflect on life lived, and the life still to be lived. But today, the biggest thing on my mind is the life after this short life. The eternal life. The life that never ends. Compared to forever, this life is a blip, a moment, a blink, a vapor. Life is really such a short moment, when it’s set side-by-side with the eternity of life after we end life on this earth.
I think about the line from Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story “To infinity, and beyond!” and I think about how eternity is infinity. There is no end. It will last forever.
Eternal perspective can be daunting, but it can also provide a shift in how we think about this life we are living now.
Having a birthday, especially when it falls around Easter, and in this year’s case, the day right after Easter, adds to that perspective.
Easter represents the one thing that truly matters for eternity. The free gift of salvation that Jesus paid for with His life, and by defeating death! All we have to do is recognize our need for His gift - without it, there is no way for us to live in eternity with Him, and receive that gift from Him.
I want to be who and do what will actually matter beyond this vapor of life. What will matter in eternity.
I was convicted about how I tend to shy away from directly speaking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people I meet when the setting seems awkward or not ideal.
But then I thought, what will any of these people say when they leave this life – this vapor – and find out the truth? What if they haven’t heard the gospel, and they enter eternity without it? It was sobering and gut-wrenching to have a visual in my mind of people I’ve met at the doors of eternity asking me why I didn’t tell them. …These people who Christ loves as much as He loves me, and I haven’t been courageous enough to share the gospel with them.
The face of someone who you know may have just popped into your mind as well.
When I think about how brief this life is, and how much more important eternity is, it gives me the perspective I need to share the truth and love of Jesus with the people I meet: neighbors, colleagues, friends, acquaintances, even estranged family.
While I’m not responsible for anyone to make a personal decision to believe the truth of the gospel, I am very much responsible for sharing that truth with them: allowing them to make that personal decision after being provided that truth.
I can’t fathom the anguish of seeing someone I knew for years in this life, looking at me and asking why I never told them the truth! Why I never took two minutes to just let them know so they could personally decide what they wanted to do with that truth.
Eternal perspective is everything. If each one of us who have the hope of eternity with Christ actually showed others the gift of love that we have received, how many others would be able to experience eternity in a new heaven and new earth with Christ?!
I hope and pray that I would be more bold – and in that boldness – loving. True love is not found in so many of the things the world claims it to be found in. It is found in truth.
Love someone?
Show your love by giving them the truth and hope of eternity. With this life being only a vapor, a moment, a blip, in the grand scheme of things, it’s beyond worth the boldness, and even more worth getting over any anxiety, fear, or concern. It’s the epitome of true love.
