IS OUR FOCUS WRONG?

 

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)
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.

               There are so many things that grab our focus. It is easy for us to get caught up in whatever the current crisis or cause of the day is. I received a tongue-in-cheek Facebook post once that said, “I’m for whatever is the current hot issue.” There are so many things that are clamoring for our attention that we can easily lose focus on what is most important.

               There has been a trend in the church in general to adjust our message to speak to whatever is the current hot topic. In our effort to be relevant, we have placed some important things on the back burner. We still think they are important but we don’t give them much attention. One of those things is Heaven.

               When I was growing up in church, I heard much about heaven. Most people, whether they were a committed believer or not, thought about heaven. People were concerned about what happened to them after they died. They wanted some assurance that death was not the end of their story. Those that were cynical quipped that many believers were so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good. The real truth is that when we forget about heaven, we lose our perspective on earth as well. Most people today think very little about heave, if at all. It is not even on their radar screen. They are so focused on today that they have lost sight of eternity.

               C.S. Lewis has pointed out that a person’s hope in heaven is a great motivator for how they live their daily lives. He made the point that those in history who did the most for this present world were those who thought most of the next.

               In my devotions today, I came across this quote from Lewis that puts things into perspective.

“It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: Aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

               It is clear from scripture that a vivid hope is heaven was the motivation for the heroic efforts of the early Christians. They understood that what a person does with his life here on earth has eternal consequences. They were willing to make great sacrifices for others because they knew that God would reward them in heaven.

               Today, we are caught up in seeking temporary rewards while we pay little attention to eternal ones. We are caught up in focusing on making this a better place to live instead of preparing better people for eternity. It is like redecorating a sinking ship rather than assuring that everyone has a life preserver.

               This is not to say that we are to ignore the issues of our day. Instead, we are to view the issues of today through the lens of eternity. It is always right to seek justice and show mercy, but not as an end in themselves. We are to seek the best for others so that they might see the light of Christ and turn toward him. All of our efforts will come to nothing if they are only for today. It is only as we place our efforts in the context of eternity that they will last. We don’t just want better people living in a better world, we want redeemed people headed for a better eternity.

               If I may refer to C.S. Lewis again, the way we live our lives each day is shaping the person we will be for all of eternity. We are either drawing closer to Christ and becoming more like him or we are drawing further away from Christ. We are either becoming glorious, eternal beings or hideous, demonic ones. Our eternal path is set now, in this life, in this world.

               We need to care for this world, not just to preserve it for future generations, but because it is God’s creation and we have been given the responsibility to steward it wisely. We need to care for other people, not just to make their life better here on earth, but because they were created in God’s image, to be in relationship with Him for all of eternity. Living our best life on earth is God’s will for us. Keeping our eyes focused on heaven is the motivation that keeps us moving in the right direction.

Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.