An Eternal Perspective

If a person was born in the year 1864, the year before Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, and lived the average life expectancy of an American citizen today, 78,[1] then on the rest of their birth dates they will have been dead longer than they were alive.

That is not an uncommon reality. For example, George Washington was born in 1732 and died in 1799 at the age of 67. That means that Mr. Washington has been dead a little more than three times the length of his own life.

Such morbid thoughts actually do serve a purpose. I once had a man that was discipling myself and a group of guys in college. At the end of a college semester, he drove us out to the local cemetery. Once there, he turned us loose for about five minutes with the singular instruction to observe. Once reconvened, he asked what we discovered. I was the youngest and so I was quiet. The other upperclassmen gave good answers. They noticed that people died at all ages. They noticed that there were people from all over the country. They noticed that some headstones were more extravagant than others. But what none of us noticed was that in this particular part of the cemetery everyone had now been dead longer than they had lived. This struck a profound chord with me and I have tried to take every group of young men to the cemetery since then.

This may not be surprising to some people, but as a young man I was struck with the very limited and very temporary nature of this life. I was confronted with the fact that all these people buried in this portion of the cemetery had been in eternity, either heaven or hell, longer than they were on earth. In that lesson I learned what truly matters.

Death has a strange way about it. It is simultaneously repulsive and beneficial. It is detestable and yet a mighty teacher. When both my grandparents died all I could do was tell God that I hated death. I hated that it happened. I hated that we all faced it. I hated that it separates families. And yet, at the same time, I was thanking God for death. Because I knew death was a gateway. By the work of Christ, death had become a door for my grandparents to enter into eternity with God. It will become my door too.

As a teacher, death has a powerful way of putting things into perspective. For myself, 2020 was a challenging year, not for the actual disease of COVID-19, but for all the other debates and tensions it brought with it. I am stunned that the bride of Christ was splintering over something as silly and temporary as wearing a mask. Somehow, wearing a mask became a symbol of not trusting God. Yet, in my neck of the world, people carry guns on their hips in case some intruder comes into the home or church building.

Even today, politics are raging at a pace that I have never experienced before. It has become almost impossible to enter into a gathering of God’s people without discussing politics in some form or fashion. It is a real burden to me.

Further still, there are the usual struggles of immorality, drunkenness, divorce, homosexuality, immaturity, drug abuse, other addictions, lack of church attendance, and more, all amplified by a year of bitter disagreement over a disease that no one understands.

I often take time to step back and remind myself of the cemetery. I need to remember that all these things, from mask wearing, to sin, to America, are temporary. One day, I will be joyfully dead longer than I was alive here on earth! I often am reminded about what is eternal and what is temporary. This is something that I think most Christians tend to forget. In 10,000 years, your American political debating on Facebook will not matter one ounce. What will matter is the way you treated others, the witness you bore in the world, and your faithfulness to Christ and His gospel.

In 10,000 years, your position on the mask issue will not matter. It will all be a distant and unimportant memory that is totally drowned out by the beauty and glory of Jesus.

When we set our minds on things above, and not on things of the earth like Paul tells us (Col. 3:1-4) - when we set our minds on eternity - then these temporary matters, though they seem eternally important now, tend to be put into their proper place. More than ever, God’s people need to live in light of the return of Christ and the hope of eternity. Such living will provide peace, assurance, faith, strength, comfort, joy, boldness, and courage. Such living will honor God.

Whatever worldly pressure or issue is dominating your life right now, compare it to eternity with Christ. View your own life against the backdrop of heaven. View your neighbor against the backdrop of eternity. And dare I say it, view America, and her democrat and republican parties, against the backdrop of eternity. I think if we all do, the landscape will not only begin to change, but the gospel will go forth.

[1] Center for Disease Control year 2021.