The Long View

Recently I wrote about living in the present moment. I talked about my state of weariness and fatigue. I lamented over past regrets and worried over an uncertain future. I got nothing accomplished as a result and the day was lost. It resonated with many of you. 

Today I read about "taking the long view" - to think about the effect that something will have in the future. Is that my choices? We set aside resources for the future. I vividly remember my mother working all summer to preserve food for the winter. As a farmer, my father worked daily with a long view - hoping for a successful crop in the future. But today, with the speed of our lives, we want it all today. Just this morning I was disappointed when I learned my anticipated package will take two days, instead of one. And why plant tiny little zinnia seeds when I can buy them already blooming in pots?I don't want to wait for anything. Except maybe Heaven. As the country song says, everyone wants to go, but not today.  We love living in the present, when now more than ever, we should be longing for a better future. It's what the apostle Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5 - taking the long view.  In his poem, Disturb Us, Sir Francis Drake wrote, :Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of Heaven."Can we do both? Can we live our earthly life with Heaven in our mind and hearts?Is that what Heaven on earth would look like? If so, what a change in our current world.Ed Stetzer wrote these words in Christianity Today about the long view:

"The Christian life is not about our best life now. To follow Jesus faithfully is an acknowledgment that our best life comes later and our lives right now should reflect this reality. To do that requires four shifts in the way we view life.

1. We need an eternal perspective.

The biblical emphasis on keeping eternity in our view reminds us of the brevity of our existence. The Bible compares life to a vapor that is here today and gone tomorrow. Having this fixed in our mind points us to a reality that goes far beyond the years we may have on this earth. 

2. We need to live in this contrast between now and not yet. 

Paul says we “groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are” (2 Cor. 5:4). We groan because we are in this imperfect, broken reality, but we look forward to the time when that reality is replaced with something greater. We know this to be true because of our own experiences and those around us. We groan when we hear of the hurt of our friends and family. We groan in our own bodies because of  physical challenges. We all groan, but this groan is for heaven, for an eternal and better place. These groans are temporary. Our best life is yet to come. (Thank God.)

3.  We need a confident hope that should permeate our lives. 

In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” Paul’s point is  currently we live our lives based on faith; we’re holding fast to things we cannot see. Then we’ll walk by sight because we can actually see the fulfillment of God’s promises to us. But for today, in a life characterized by our stumbling attempts at walking without sight, we rest our hope in our currently unseen Savior. One day that hope will be realized into full sight, but for today a confident hope should shape us.

4.  We need a proper understanding of the realities that are before us.

In 2 Corinthians 5:9, Paul writes, “Whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him.” Herein is the truth we cannot miss. Paul says we make it our aim to please God both now when we are in our physical bodies and later when we see rightly and live for eternity. For Paul, the promise of the resurrection leads to a current life shaped around resurrection values. We want to please Jesus in our brief time here so that we might worship Jesus for an eternal time there. The hope of personal presence later leads to the desire of personal actions now.

This is not our best life today. There are good moments for which we should praise God, but we know there are challenges, difficulties, struggles, physical ailments, hurt, and pain. The world is indeed broken.(Just review the words of Condolezza Rice from a recent interview on Face The Nation.)  But the good news is Jesus will make all things right, including you and me. For those who follow Christ, we will be in right, perfect-sighted relationship with Him for eternity, and that should cause us to live differently now."

 It should encourage us to take the long view.