The long term view
This week is on 2 Corinthians 5:6-10:
Paul is in the middle of philosophizing about death here. In other places, he talks about the same thing: When you have an eternal perspective, dying doesn't really have the sting it does from a secular perspective. Paul's perspective is the eternal perspective. It's great to be in heaven with God, but it's also good to be here.
I've heard people describe the spirit in our body on Earth as being like walking on the surface of the moon in a space suit. We're still ourselves, and we still have communication back with the place we left, but it's limited compared to being there in person. Our movement is limited, our vision is limited, and our communications with each other are limited, but it's an adventure and we have a purpose for being here. If the space walk takes a long time, you get a lot done and you have a lot of fun in that strange place. If it ends early, you get to have a warm shower, hug the people you love, and eat bacon cheeseburgers again. There are advantages to both. Paul's preference is to go heaven, but he also values the adventure on earth. He recognizes the purpose to it.
So Paul is like "We're still us, alive or dead. But we have this meat suit on, and we've got things to do while we're in it. So let's do the things, because we can't go back once we return to where we came from." We all have to appear before God and receive the rewards for everything we did, good or bad. We're saved from damnation, but it doesn't mean that our actions don't make a difference. They do.
The important thing to note is that Paul's desire for death isn't self-destructive. He doesn't hate himself. He isn't looking to death as an escape from a crappy meaningless life. A death in those circumstances is no sacrifice, because you want it to happen. When you're having a lousy time with life, hopping on a plane to Afghanistan and preaching the gospel loudly outside of a Taliban camp isn't going to score you any points. You're committing "suicide by evangelism." Nobody told you to go there!
Paul's acceptance of death was more like what I imagine the guys in the landing craft on D-Day had. Statistically, the guys by the doors of the first boats to land were almost 100% guaranteed to die within the first couple seconds of the battle. So if you draw the unlucky straw, and find yourself by those doors, as the craft approaches the shore, what do you do? Do you shove your way to the back of the craft? Do you put your gun down, because it probably won't get used anyway? Or do you accept that the fact that you're there means that someone else doesn't have to be, that your death makes a difference to someone else?
Paul was one of those guys on the front lines. He realized the statistics. "Sooner or later, this stuff is going to get me killed." Did he try to speed the process up, so he could eat bacon cheeseburgers with Jesus and give God a big sloppy hug? No. Did he try to slow the process down, avoiding risks so that he could skip across the surface of the planet for a few more precious minutes? No. He realized that heaven is better, but he also accepted that we only have one chance to be here on Earth. Let God choose when the trip ends, early or late.
Paul says that we live by faith, not by sight. His faith is that the world really is as God describes it to us, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that God loves us and wants us to join him in eternity. When we live by that faith, we make different decisions than the guy with amnesia who thinks life in the spacesuit is all there is, while he clings to a rock until his oxygen runs out. We are confident, over time, that God is who he represents himself to be, and that the world is as he describes it. So then death is no big thing.
We still have time left before we hop in a wooden box and return to mission control. Most of us have no idea how much time is left. So what is it we need to do? Or need not to do? When your perspective is eternal, those become more important questions than how much time is left. Whether you're old or young, sick or healthy, if you focus on those things, your time here will be everything it needs to be. Enjoy the adventure.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Paul is in the middle of philosophizing about death here. In other places, he talks about the same thing: When you have an eternal perspective, dying doesn't really have the sting it does from a secular perspective. Paul's perspective is the eternal perspective. It's great to be in heaven with God, but it's also good to be here.
I've heard people describe the spirit in our body on Earth as being like walking on the surface of the moon in a space suit. We're still ourselves, and we still have communication back with the place we left, but it's limited compared to being there in person. Our movement is limited, our vision is limited, and our communications with each other are limited, but it's an adventure and we have a purpose for being here. If the space walk takes a long time, you get a lot done and you have a lot of fun in that strange place. If it ends early, you get to have a warm shower, hug the people you love, and eat bacon cheeseburgers again. There are advantages to both. Paul's preference is to go heaven, but he also values the adventure on earth. He recognizes the purpose to it.
So Paul is like "We're still us, alive or dead. But we have this meat suit on, and we've got things to do while we're in it. So let's do the things, because we can't go back once we return to where we came from." We all have to appear before God and receive the rewards for everything we did, good or bad. We're saved from damnation, but it doesn't mean that our actions don't make a difference. They do.
The important thing to note is that Paul's desire for death isn't self-destructive. He doesn't hate himself. He isn't looking to death as an escape from a crappy meaningless life. A death in those circumstances is no sacrifice, because you want it to happen. When you're having a lousy time with life, hopping on a plane to Afghanistan and preaching the gospel loudly outside of a Taliban camp isn't going to score you any points. You're committing "suicide by evangelism." Nobody told you to go there!
Paul's acceptance of death was more like what I imagine the guys in the landing craft on D-Day had. Statistically, the guys by the doors of the first boats to land were almost 100% guaranteed to die within the first couple seconds of the battle. So if you draw the unlucky straw, and find yourself by those doors, as the craft approaches the shore, what do you do? Do you shove your way to the back of the craft? Do you put your gun down, because it probably won't get used anyway? Or do you accept that the fact that you're there means that someone else doesn't have to be, that your death makes a difference to someone else?
Paul was one of those guys on the front lines. He realized the statistics. "Sooner or later, this stuff is going to get me killed." Did he try to speed the process up, so he could eat bacon cheeseburgers with Jesus and give God a big sloppy hug? No. Did he try to slow the process down, avoiding risks so that he could skip across the surface of the planet for a few more precious minutes? No. He realized that heaven is better, but he also accepted that we only have one chance to be here on Earth. Let God choose when the trip ends, early or late.
Paul says that we live by faith, not by sight. His faith is that the world really is as God describes it to us, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that God loves us and wants us to join him in eternity. When we live by that faith, we make different decisions than the guy with amnesia who thinks life in the spacesuit is all there is, while he clings to a rock until his oxygen runs out. We are confident, over time, that God is who he represents himself to be, and that the world is as he describes it. So then death is no big thing.
We still have time left before we hop in a wooden box and return to mission control. Most of us have no idea how much time is left. So what is it we need to do? Or need not to do? When your perspective is eternal, those become more important questions than how much time is left. Whether you're old or young, sick or healthy, if you focus on those things, your time here will be everything it needs to be. Enjoy the adventure.
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