eternal life

Last night I had a dream. In my dream a member of our church asked me, "what is eternal life?"

First of all, I have to tell you that this is a good dream. I don't know that we control what we dream, and sometimes dreams are odd, strange, or just not nice. So, for all of the things that I could have dreamt, this is a good dream.

Now. What is the answer to the question: What is eternal life.

I think that most Christians think that after we die we will wake up in a heavenly land. That our bodies will be different, but life will go on, only in heaven with Jesus. No tears, no crying, no problems.

These are pretty good beliefs, but they are rooted in our current situation. They are convenient to our current way of thinking. Since we can't really imagine a life that is different than this one, we come up with ideas that make us feel comfortable in this earthly skin. This is our paradigm, our set of life beliefs. It is hard to think beyond the way that we currently think.

It is my belief that the concept of eternal life demands that we think beyond our comfort zone and to think beyond our convenient theologies.

First, I would say about eternal life: it has already begun. You are already alive. After you die an earthly death, you continue to live. Death is just a passage. You don't cease to exist. So point one is that we are now living, and will live into eternity. Eternal life is not a future thing. It is happening to us now. Human death is just a passage, a crossing over. My soul, which is alive, will continue to live into the future.

What I love about that thought is that it causes me to value my human life time on earth in a greater way. I am already an eternal being. Maybe a different skin for this soul on the other side of earthly death, but I am already an eternal being.

Created in the image of God. Sealed by the Holy Spirit. When I think this way, I place a greater value on how I live now.

Specifically I want to say that I try to think constantly about the opportunities that I have to do good in the name of the Lord. I am not saying, "oh I am an eternal being, so I must straighten up." I am not piling on guilt. I am saying this in a positive way. Since I am an eternal being, let me do "all the good I can, to all the people that I can, in every way that I can." [John Wesley]

Since I am an eternal being, I try to be less interested in what kind of car I drive, what kind of clothes that I wear, how many wrinkles are on my face.

Yes I believe in streets of Gold and the river of life that flows into that great city. I also know that the Biblical writers were describing the indescribable. Heaven is that good, at least. I have always tended to believe that we only have an inkling of what God actually has prepared for us.

4For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
Isaiah 64:4

Ok, well that was a big topic from a short dream. I am ringing the bell from 9am-11am at the Independence Walmart, next to Sam's Wholesale club today. If you are going to that Walmart, be sure to stop and say hello.

GB: excellent comment on yesterday's blog. I got smarter when I read it. Thanks.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.