How to live here, since something so much better is ahead of us

By Dean Collins

Would you rather be here or there?

I suspect we often give the Sunday school answer to that question. Those of you who grew up in the church when Sunday school was a thing know what I’m talking about. I’ll explain for the rest of you.

Monday through Saturday you pretty much did what everyone else did: work, play, go to school, get in trouble, maybe tell a lie or two. But on Saturday night everything shifted. You took a bath, cleaned your fingernails, and shined your shoes, because on Sunday morning you went to church. And the hour before church you went to Sunday school, which was divided by age just like public school Monday through Friday.

The teachers at Sunday school all prepared their lessons Saturday while you were getting scrubbed and cleaned up for Jesus. They were almost always someone’s mom or grandmother. They would teach a Bible story. They would always ask some questions of the class to see what was learned. And of course, being well-scrubbed and prepared, we would give the Sunday school answer. The go-to Sunday school answers were Jesus or God, and sometimes something like love one another or obey. We knew enough to know Sunday school was all about Jesus and God, so naming them was always a good first attempt at answering any question. We might have done better if we had listened to the teacher, but usually we were thinking about the snacks we would get as a reward for staying in our seats the whole lesson.

Then, and now

So back to the question: Would you rather be here or there? On earth enjoying your stuff and your friends and family, or in Heaven with Jesus? The Sunday school answer is Number Two: with Jesus. It’s a solid answer. Living in the place where Heaven and earth are back together with Jesus is certainly desirable and will surely happen. But we are here now. And we do love the good things of this life. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying our family, friends, hobbies, and work. Our problem is it’s quite easy to overlook God’s complete provision and forget what we have here is temporary. We tend to think and act as if this life is all we have and all we’ll get, so we become obsessed with focus on the here and now and forget we are ambassadors of a new Kingdom.

As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:18, the things around us, all we can see and touch, are transient; but the things we can’t yet put a finger on are eternal. He continued in chapter 5 to explain that our bodies are temporary, like tents. Tents tear, and tent stakes break. They were never meant to be permanent. They give us shelter until we get to a place where all the structures are permanent.

While we are here, we feel the stress and experience the burdens of living in a broken world. When we encounter Jesus and realize what he did for us on the cross and how the story ends, we begin to long for the day we’ll step into all he has prepared for us. Paul says we can be of good courage because we know the rest of the story.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I forget the rest of the story even though I know it quite well. I sometimes get stuck in the moaning and groaning about the stuff I see right in front of me, like making payroll during a pandemic or meeting the expectations of stressed employees. It’s easy to become obsessed with trying to satisfy the demands of life here and now.

Old, then new

Next, Paul challenges us to consider how we view the people around us: as their old selves or in the reality of their new identities in Christ? The work of Christ on the cross has changed everything for all time. The payment for the collective sins of humanity means we now must view others in a fresh, new way: as those God loved and died for so they can be made completely new. When we accept Christ we become new people. The old is gone. Our new mission is to share with others this opportunity to receive complete reconciliation with God. We can’t go around treating those God loves with contempt and hostility. We must see them as God sees them.

Someday we’ll walk in the space God has made for us in a fully renewed earth. I think the older we get and the more we embrace the reality that God has made us and all things new, the more we naturally long for that time and place. I sometimes need to be reminded that the struggles here are temporary. I also need to be reminded that when I let go of trying to fix everything, I create space to see and enjoy how God fills up the needs I have and those you have as well.

Temporary, then eternal

I’m looking forward to being there in my eternal home with Jesus. But when I embrace my identity in Christ, I can also completely enjoy being here even in times of difficulty because I know God can and will use me to bring a message of hope, reconciliation, and newness to those around me.

The Sunday school answer, “Jesus,” is the right answer. But having said that, we still need to learn to live like Jesus while we are here in our temporary homes.

Your time with God’s Word
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:18‬; 5:1-21 ESV

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

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