Ecclesiastes 5:15 As a man came from his mother's womb, so he will depart again, naked as he arrived. He takes nothing for his labour to carry in his hands.
The Transient of Life
Ecclesiastes 1:17 So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.
We brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it. That is the futility of all of our hard work at the end of our lives. Nothing matters. Regardless of riches, wealth, fame, power, achievements, status or credentials, they are meaningless at the end of our journey. It is like the currency of a country becomes worthless when we leave for another country. Only if we have a way of converting it to the currency of that country will it retain its value. If not, we will have to leave everything behind as if we never had it. That is futility or, to be specific, the meaninglessness of our lives, like robbing ourselves of our well-deserved medals. As Solomon expressed it: It is futile and a pursuit of the wind. All our efforts are a waste of time, transient, lacking eternal value. In other words, wasting our time. What if we are good? Soon, there is someone better to replace us. So, what if our invention is excellent? Very soon, it will be obsolete. Even if we leave behind a legacy, it will soon be superseded. Our dreams, visions, aspirations and even our lives are like sandcastles, soon will be washed away by the waves, leaving no trace behind. That is the reality we have to deal with; we are as good as we were last.
The Permanence of Our Existence
Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Our life on Earth is temporal, and we will one day leave for another place of permanence. Even though we leave Earth through the process called death, we, literally, will never die even when we stop breathing. Once born, all possess the breath of life, which GOD breathed into the first man, Adam. This breath, as eternal as God, cannot be destroyed and will keep us living forever, for better or for worse. Regardless of our religion or spiritual orientation, we will live on either in life in heaven with GOD or in our second death in hell away from GOD. Even when we breathe our last breath and are reduced to dust back to the Earth, we will not be reduced to nothing or vanish into thin air.
Death will not bring the end of us, and it will not end the repercussions of our actions, otherwise known as karma. Therefore, bygones will not be bygones when we are gone. Nothing ends except our trials in life when we are put to sleep for the Day of Judgment. When the Book of Life is opened on that day, we will face judgment and give an account of our deeds and for every careless word we have spoken. We will continue living after judgment according to the judgment. And if anyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life, he will be thrown into the lake of fire where there is no end. Those whose names are written in the Book of Life will be with GOD in the new heaven and new earth. Either in hell or in heaven, life continues after death.
Planning Forward
John 14:2 In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
Once created, we cannot be destroyed; we can only be converted from one form to another. As water changes from a liquid to a gaseous state, we change from physical to spiritual form. We are the same as Jesus Christ, unchanged through death. The unfortunate truth is that only we can undergo spiritual metamorphosis, not our material possessions. They are unable to morph with us. In a nutshell, once we die, it is eternal separation from our material possessions. Dying is like our emergency evacuation from an aircraft; we cannot take our luggage along. What we can bring is what we have on. With this in mind, we can rethink our strategy and plan forward with eternality in mind.
Planning with the End in Mind
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
Only things can happen with a plan. Even GOD has plans for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, to give you a future and hope. When we fail to plan, we plan to fail. If we do not have eternity in mind, we will fail to plan for it and take what is necessary to achieve it. If that happens, that could be our regrettable oversight or foolishness. What is unseen or unknown might not be non-existent. What we cannot hear does not mean there is no sound. It might be an inaudible sound that our ears cannot detect. Many things exist beyond our imagination, like holding a phone and hearing someone who is far away speak. If we discard reality beyond our imagination, then we might be too arrogant to think we know everything. If GOD says so, it is better to take it seriously. Unless we think we know better than GOD.
Rethinking of our Eternality
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Therefore, we should not be myopic in thinking that we only last a lifetime, which, in fact, we are made for eternity. Comparing a lifetime to an eternity is like a drop in the ocean. If we have plans only for this lifetime and neglect our eternality, we will have much to regret. We can mess about our lifetimes, but never our eternality because eternity is too long to live if it encompasses pain, suffering, and regret. To prevent these, we must plan early in our lifetime for it. It is like getting a good education when you are young, so your future is secure. As much as we must sacrifice when young for our future, so we must sacrifice our lifetime for eternality. To do well in our studies, we cannot do as we wish, but we must learn well. Likewise, to prepare for eternality, we also cannot do as we want but must do well in what is required of us. Failing to do so, we will miss out on our excellent future in eternality.
Rethinking our Priority
Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of GOD and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
Jesus said, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" In other words, Jesus is saying that things of temporal value cannot be compared to things of eternal value. Once we lose the things of eternal value, nothing of temporal value can replace it. Therefore, we cannot have misappropriated priority by placing temporal things over eternal, even if they might not be relevant now. We put the gain of the whole world as more value than our souls. If we lose our souls to the things of the world, Jesus said that there is nothing we can use to exchange it back. It is like losing a person to the evil of drug abuse. If the drug has taken control of the man, there is nothing much one can do to get him back.
Rethinking of our Alliances
James 4:4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
We need to survive in the world, but that does not mean we need to compromise by sacrificing our souls. In other words, we need not exchange our gold coin or a copper coin of the world. The evil one wants our gold coin, and we will be foolish if we ever exchange with him. Therefore, we should never sell our souls by betraying GOD, our characters and principles for the ill-gotten gains of the world. Getting them will bring no benefits to us except to increase the ills in our lives. However, if we do not walk the way and indulge in the practices as the world does, those in the world will hate us. Therefore, Jesus said, "Everyone will hate you because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved." If we want to prove ourselves worthy of God's love and the right to eternal life, we need to make a difference, stand apart from the world and never give away our gold coin.
Rethinking of our Treasures
Matthew 6:19-21 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What is of value to GOD might not be to the world. Natural man does not define treasures as GOD does and does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolish to him, and he cannot understand them because they are intangible, unquantifiable, unseen and unproven. In other words, nonsense. Therefore, natural man only stores treasure on earth and not in heaven because he values things differently from GOD. Since the time frame of man is temporal, his mind frame is on temporal things. If he wants to prepare for life after death by storing up treasures of eternal value in heaven, he must change his mind frame by changing his heart towards the things of temporal value. He must treat things of temporal value as worthless and things of eternal value as treasures and pursue them with all of that he has. To him, the kingdom of heaven must be like a treasure hidden in a field. Once he finds it, he hides it again and, in his joy, goes and sells all he has and buys that field. The kingdom of heaven is also like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he finds one very precious pearl, he goes away and sells all he has and buys it.
Rethinking our Investment Portfolio
1 Corinthians 3:19-20 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness." And again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."
As the saying goes, 'No pain, no gain.' If we cannot give up our treasures on earth, we cannot build our treasures in heaven. If we cannot give up the wisdom of the world for the foolishness of GOD, we cannot gain the wisdom of GOD, which is the foolishness of the world. If we want to build our treasures in heaven, do things that matter, and give us a future, we must change our perspectives. We must value the foolishness of the world that produces eternal value. When we invest our resources in time, talent, and money, we must calculate the ROI (return on investment) of things, not only on earth but also in heaven. If it does not have eternal value, then our returns are short-term gains but long-term losses, which is not ideal. It is foolish for a man to start a business that materially enriches him but spiritually bankrupts him. Therefore, whatever we do, we must understand not only the short-term implications but the long-term effects. If not, we are only wise for a moment but foolish forever.
Conclusion: Where your treasure is where your heart will be
1 Corinthians 15:54-55 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
"Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?"
Many are afraid of the sting of death because they are not prepared for eternality. They are like students going for an examination without having enough preparation. Unless we have been faithfully building treasures in heaven, we will not fear. If we have not, then we have much to worry about when the time is nearing. And those with immense treasures on earth will be reluctant to leave as they are unwilling to part with their wealth. However, this appointment with death is imminent, and no one is exempted. Only when we are secure that our treasures are in heaven will we be willing to leave everything behind for heaven because we have emptied our lives on earth and have nothing to hold us back.
Prayer: God, please open my eyes to see the things of eternal value so that I will diligently work towards them. Let me not be fooled by the deception of the world and waste my life on things that do not value-add to my eternal life and rob me of it instead. I brought nothing into the world, and I would not carry anything out of it. Let me be generous in sharing Your goodness so that my treasures will be great in heaven. Amen.
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