Quest for the 'Opposite World'

This afternoon, I happened upon the movie ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ ... Do you remember that movie? I didn’t remember the reason why Tom Hanks was ‘looking for a new wife’, but even as the details filled in and it hit so close to home, for some reason I couldn’t turn it off. The overall premise is that a man suddenly looses his wife to cancer and is left with just his young son to raise. At some point in the movie, though, his little boy asks him if he believes in Heaven and his Dad answers ‘I don’t know. I never really thought about it before now. I’m not sure what I believe.’

I just can not imagine going through all that we have been through without God and His promise of Heaven ... not KNOWING that Jesus defeated death so that we can live in the promise of some day being with David again, in His presence ... Not knowing how to answer the kids questions and tearful moments with that promise ... Not having hope ... Not knowing truth. I can not imagine it. The thought just puts a knot in my stomach and a lump in my throat. How much more intense would the pain be without that promise ... Without knowing ... I can almost feel the panic behind the thought ... the anger that would be there ... the confusion ... the frustration ... the fear. The darkness in the thought is so overwhelming that I had to put Praise music on just to keep it from taking it over my head and drawing me down.

But then the thought turned a different direction ... I started to cry out for all of the people out there that truly never give Heaven a thought, or maybe who are only faced with the question when it’s too late for their loved one or when they are too angry to care. Occasionally some situation may pop up that makes them stop to ask the surface question, but then all too quickly it’s whisked away in confusion or maybe in offense or in the busyness of life that makes it seem like an irrelevant ‘what if’.

How often do you visit your ‘what ifs’? ... Do you know what you think? Have you ever thought about it? What DO you believe or WHY do you believe it? If your kids/grandkids/neighbors/co-workers/spouse were to ask about Heaven, do you know what you would say? I have found that satan likes to hide in those ‘what ifs’, which should be our sign that there's something of value there ... he has a lot to gain or lose at those vulnerable moments that are often crossroads in our faith walk ... as we decide in which direction to continue. But the ‘what ifs’ are important to visit as we can actually learn a lot about our hearts at those intersections ... our priorities ... our fears ... how big we think our God is.

I recently started reading Randy Alcorn’s book ‘Heaven’ ... Just needed to. He points out how little is taught about Heaven and how much satan works to keep it that way. After all, imagine what would happen if we were all to start thinking about it ... looking forward to it ... or heaven-forbid (pun intended) we actually started to live as if there will be a Heaven like the Bible teaches, with rewards and blessings to be handed out ... how much would that change the way we live? Imagine what such thinking would do to the kingdom of darkness!?!? What if we viewed Heaven at the same level as our work and maybe even considered it our chance for the ultimate, eternal ‘promotion’, being decided of course by our love for Jesus, His Word and His people ... How much would that change where we invest our time and money here and now? (This used to stress me out until I realized the good news that there’s a higher position for EVERYONE WHO WANTS ONE!!!)

The question that begs to be asked is ‘If we do believe what we believe, why don’t we live like we believe it?’

Do we live like we believe God is who He says He is or that God can do what He says He can do? Do we believe that God is the same God now as the God who raised Jesus from the dead? Do we live like Jesus was even raised from the dead, in the victory of a Risen Savior!?! Even though satan has done a good job of making it all so irrelevant in our busy world of ‘self’, what if we were to start living in God’s ‘opposite’ world NOW, instead of just visiting it from time-to-time on those ‘good days’.

2 Peter 1:4 says ‘He has given us His very great and precious promises [the Word] so that through them you may participate in the DIVINE NATURE [God’s opposite world] and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil doers’ ... Did you know we can ESCAPE this crazy world NOW, if we would just READ AND FOLLOW his promises outlined in His Word!! That may seem like a ‘dah’ moment, but let it sink in a minute ... it’s the last thing satan wants us to get, so he does his best to throw in a lot of confusion on things that should really matter to us. For example, what if we really did value faith as being more precious than gold (1Peter 1:7)? I’m actually thinking about buying gold right now, so I'm finding out how expensive it really is. People steal gold ... they guard and insure gold ... people have been KILLED over gold ... If we valued our faith as being MORE precious than gold, what would we do to seek it? Would we value the trials that the Bible says increase our faith?

What if we really did consider the Words of Jesus as our bread and water (John 6:35) ... I’m not saying in place of food, as God created our bodies in this world to obviously need physical food (PRAISE GOD!), but what if we went to His Word as MUCH as we eat or drink, or held it in as high of a PRIORITY as what we put into our mouth?! (hey, when I want a Dew, nothing much keeps me from it!) Can you imagine being as determined to get into the Word three times a day (or more) as we are about eating?

As we seek our eternal promotion, what if we really believed the words ‘the least will become the greatest’ and worked as hard to be ‘the least’ in our families, our friendships, or our work places ... putting other’s needs before our own knowing that in Heaven that heart is rewarded ... What if? It doesn’t have to be something as big as giving up that big sale to a co-worker who needs the money more than you, but it could start with letting your spouse have the last word in a decision ... or letting someone pull into that parking space before you rush to it ... or opening the door for the person running into post office after you, even though you are in a hurry to get through the line, too. Have you ever done that ... the speed walk to beat someone in line? Guilty! What if we were to open the door for them instead and give God the glory when they look at you quizzically when they pass you by :)

I’m finding that God’s ‘opposite’ world has it’s own currency, it’s own nourishment, it’s own rules, it’s own goals and it’s own rewards ... and you know what ... they never change on you!! My big frustration with this world is that I’m always investing my time and/or money in something short-lived or unfulfilling ... everything is always changing and as soon as I invest in something, it looses value and/or I’m left being disappointed. Tell me I'm not the only one who is tired of investing in things that lose value! Jesus taught using the lilies of the field as an example of how God takes perfect care of His creation in His opposite world ... He then warns us by saying ‘do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the PAGAN WORLD [this world] runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom [His opposite world], and these things will be given to you as well.’ (Luke 12:29-31)

Now that’s my kind of world!


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