An Eternal Perspective
“16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
I have an ideal picture of what my life should look like. And if it doesn’t currently resemble that, I have a hope for how my life will turn out. And if I was being honest with myself, this ideal, picturesque, Instagram worthy life is my end goal. My focus. I have an underlying thought that if I somehow get everything I’ve dreamed of, then I will have arrived at my destination and can spend the rest of my days in the comfort of my perfect life. Of course, I’m not naive to think it would actually be perfect. Like any of the great plots from a novel or movie, I’d encounter some obstacle to overcome or a hardship to endure. And just like the heroine, I’d overcome it and achieve my happy ending. I wonder how many of us, if we were really honest, believe realizing our perfect life will bring us the ultimate fulfillment.
So I pray self-centered prayers. I hope for a life of comfort—a life without hardship. I ask for all the things that I want that are part of this ideal life I am hoping to have. After all, according to Psalm 37:4, if you “delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you your heart’s desires…” But somehow that doesn’t seem right. God is not subservient to us, required to give us what we want on our demand. Now, we are absolutely supposed to bring our petitions before Him, and we can most certainly ask him for all our hearts desires. But is my desire to serve Him or have Him serve me?
If all I am focused on is my happy ending here on Earth, I have missed the bigger picture and God’s larger purpose for me. And if we only focus on a life of comfort, we will have a skewed perspective for life here on earth. We were not created with this life as our end goal. We were created for eternity.
Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden and they walked with God daily. They had the perfect situation: connected with their maker, connected to each other, and a home that was declared by God to be good.
Just like Adam and Eve, we were created to be in relationship with God. We were not designed for earth; this is just where God placed us. And just like Adam and Eve, we were created body and soul. God placed our soul in a (temporary) body. After the fall, mankind was cursed with death — both our bodies would decay and our souls would face eternal damnation—an eternity without God.
But God, in his graciousness and mercy, made a way to reconcile man to Him. He sent his son Jesus to Earth, who took on an earthly body. He lived the life we never could, and because of this, he died a death we deserved. Through His sacrifice, Jesus reconciled us to God and restored a right relationship with our Heavenly Father. Furthermore, his death, burial, and resurrection gives us life and life eternal.
Our souls still long for eternity. They still long for their original purpose — to be in relationship with God. Our souls are yearning for eternity, but they are trapped in this temporal body. Romans 8:23 says that we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (And tucked in this verse is the promise that we will one day get new bodies!) But until we die and go to heaven, our souls will always be at unrest in this earthly, temporary shell.
So if are destined for eternity, how do we live in the here and now? How do we handle this dynamic of being eternal beings here on earth temporarily?
I think the longing for a “perfect life” comes from the knowledge deep down that we were destined for something more than our present circumstances. But the answer for that longing is not found in what is tangible, in what can be seen. We are told to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7) and so our perspective should be a faith perspective. We remember that “if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Our focus should be eternity.
Having one miscarriage was hardly in my perfect picture, so a second miscarriage was definitely not what I signed up for. And naturally, the questions that arise, like “Why me?” or “How come God did come through on these prayers?” floated around my mind. But as I drove home from that less than ideal doctor’s appointment, I felt God remind me that “this is a light and momentary affliction.” Now, that statement on it’s own seems a little harsh. But God is not minimizing our pain or making light of our struggles. No. Jesus, having lived life here on Earth, relates to our humanity. It is in his mercy that he reminds us that the struggles we go through are nothing compared to the life in eternity we have. I felt in the moment that verse was put on my heart, that God was reminding me to see the bigger picture. He wants us to remember that His perspective is not our perspective, and His is an eternal perspective, not a temporary one. In Isaiah 55:8-9, God reminds us “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God is not troubled when trouble comes our way because a.) He has an eternity planned for us that makes everything else pale in comparison, and b.) He has promised He will walk us through those same troubles. The rest of the verse in 2 Corinthians 4:17 reads “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Hardships force us to make a choice either to continue to rely on ourselves or to choose to rely on God. It is in these moments where our faith is stretched and He brings us into a new season of our relationship with Him. I wish we could grow and strengthen without any hardships. I wish we would willingly step out of our comfort zones in an effort to deepen our relationship with him. But we love being comfortable. But God is not interested in our comfort. He is interested in our growth. He wants our lives to be filled with fruits from a transformed heart.
I think the enemy wants us to stay focused on the here and now, on the seen and the transient. Focusing on what we see makes sense to us. But the Bible tells us we are to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Our hope is in the unseen. And when we focus on a life of comfort, we are focusing on the transient. When we lose our eternal perspective, we are limiting ourselves from all that he has prepared for us.
So what about the ideal life that I want for myself? Am I still believing that God will give me all of my heart’s desires? I’d be lying if I said no. But lately I have found myself challenged for what I am praying, believing, and hoping. And staying true to His character, He is renewing my inner self day by day. My faith has been strengthened to believe for something greater than what I could dream up for myself. He has shaped my heart to desire to serve Him in a greater capacity than before. I no longer want to focus on the comforts of this present world, but am praying that my heart’s desires change to align with His eternal purposes.
