Clutching the Eternal
“Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain.” -Ecclesiastes 12:1-2
I am not fully sure I understand why we are this way, but we are none-the-less. The way we are is always transient as it pertains to the satisfaction with what we do in life. It is within our nature, it would seem, to always look to gain satisfaction in life with what we are doing. The moment our situation sours slightly, we look for the next thing, wandering aimlessly we move physically from thing to thing, place to place, but nothing has truly moved at all. When we stop to measure our progress, it is often only measured with things.
This is a wile of the devil. For the un-regenerate, he uses it as a snare, one that keeps him/her from contemplation and introspection. For the regenerate, he does the same exact thing, only he makes it seem “spiritual.” It is with great repetition and commonality that I hear (and have so spoke myself) people talk about their station, or soon to be station in life, as If all the smiles of God are upon their every whim. Small talk amongst believers is often structured on this strange phenomenon.
In the first letter Paul wrote Timothy, he told him to, “Take hold of eternal life.”1 The way that Timothy was to do this was by fleeing from the pursuit of riches, by which many…many…many…have pierced themselves through with sorrows. The antithesis to money’s pursuit was rather to be a pursuit of, “Righteousness, gentleness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.” This was the fight to fight, and this was how to, “lay hold,” as it were. These are the currencies of the economy of heaven. The transactions of which have eternal consequences.
To state it positively, it is rare, when asked what is going on in our lives, that we respond by saying we are developing a care more for who we are in God, than what we are doing with our fluttering attempts to live lives of meaning. So often the “meaning,” by which we evaluate our status is like sand on the ground, comparing itself to sand in a storm. Eventually the wind-swept sand will fall back down to earth, and not much will look any different than before it was swept up in grandeur. For what we perceive to be grandeur is really only the passing of time, and the shifting of positions.
However, there is a real way to move. There is a change of position that moves beyond the prison of time. And this is a change that does not require the burning of a single calorie. It is a change that is imperceptible to the human eye, not one commonly relished or praised. This movement, while imperceptible often here, is interstellar within the realm of no-time. It is a growth in grace, II Peter 3:18, whereby we are able to lay hold of eternity, by transacting with heaven’s money. We ought not so speak and qualify our actions in the name of God by acting as if his approval is on what we are doing; rather we should have far greater concern about who we are.
1. All Timothy quotes from 1Timothy 6. Extra “many’s” were my addition.
