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Point to Ponder: This world is not my home.
Verse to Remember: So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. ---2 Corinthians 4:18 (NSV)
Question to Consider: How should the fact that life on earth is just a temporary assignment change the way I am living right now?
Interesting question. I think the main way in which I forget this is in worrying about stuff, in all its permutations: whether I'll be able to keep making as much as I am now, whether we'll be able to move to a larger apartment, whether we'll be able to keep living as we have; whether we'll be able to afford the things we need (or the things we want).
When I can let go of that, when I can remember that all of those external things don't mean as much as the Reality of God and God's care for us...I worry less.
I also recall that this was the argument used to try to persuade oppressed peasants on medieval fiefs to submit to their hard, harsh life without complaining or trying to improve things, because their reward was waiting for them in heaven. That, I think, is not a good use of the idea that this life is a temporary assignment.
It also means that it is our only opportunity to do whatever it is we can do here: love, live...enjoy the world God has made. It means life is too short to hold grudges, to be petty or mean or small, to fail to be the best "us" we can be.
Verse to Remember: So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. ---2 Corinthians 4:18 (NSV)
Question to Consider: How should the fact that life on earth is just a temporary assignment change the way I am living right now?
Interesting question. I think the main way in which I forget this is in worrying about stuff, in all its permutations: whether I'll be able to keep making as much as I am now, whether we'll be able to move to a larger apartment, whether we'll be able to keep living as we have; whether we'll be able to afford the things we need (or the things we want).
When I can let go of that, when I can remember that all of those external things don't mean as much as the Reality of God and God's care for us...I worry less.
I also recall that this was the argument used to try to persuade oppressed peasants on medieval fiefs to submit to their hard, harsh life without complaining or trying to improve things, because their reward was waiting for them in heaven. That, I think, is not a good use of the idea that this life is a temporary assignment.
It also means that it is our only opportunity to do whatever it is we can do here: love, live...enjoy the world God has made. It means life is too short to hold grudges, to be petty or mean or small, to fail to be the best "us" we can be.
