“The business of redemption is not to get us into heaven, but to get heaven into us.”
– E. Stanley Jones, Growing Spiritually
As we face a new year, our values are put to the test. Whether or not we make New Year’s resolutions, all of us tend to look back on the past year and think a little about what we would like to have happen in the coming year. Most often, the things that we hope to change are our bodies or other earthly things. Lose some weight, pick up a little spare income, lose some debt, gain some job satisfaction. Some of us might even aim at slightly loftier goals: stop being anxious or stressed, learn more, read more, try to be happier or more at peace.
If you’re a follower of Jesus, then this process of self-evaluation faces you with a question:
Where is Jesus in your priorities?
Where is becoming like Him in your ambitions?
When you have those moments in which you stop and take stock of who you are and who you’d like to become, do you most often think of things that have to do only with who you are and will be until you die, or do you go through that process from the perspective of a being that will live forever, and one that was made to reflect the image of God, because that’s what you are.
It’s not that there’s anything wrong at all with wanting to be more fit, more educated, more emotionally healthy, or to enjoy life more. The problem with that is that we are not merely creatures in earthly bodies. Your foundational identity is not that of a father or mother, an employee, an athlete or musician, or whatever other small labels you might use to identify yourself. We were made for far greater things than the tiny goals we tend to aim at.
Even Christians can get this idea wrong, like a very well known pastor here in the Houston area (and many others) who teaches that God desires our happiness, and so He wants to bless us with health and bigger houses and nicer cars. Again, those things aren’t inherently wrong. They’re just too small, and they can distract us from the really big things that will give us the deepest joy and satisfaction.
Things like Jesus Himself, and things like becoming more like Him.
C.S. Lewis puts it this way:
If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
Questions:
- When you read things like this, how much do you actually believe it? Do you think that ideas like “getting Heaven into us” are ultimately unattainable until we die, or do you think that they’re actually realistic?
- When you take stock of what you spend your time thinking about and working toward, what do those thoughts and actions show that you believe to be most valuable?
- How can you take steps toward allowing God to get more of heaven into you?
