“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into
eternal life.” – Matthew 25:46
There is a rope stretching for as far as
one’s eye can see. Imagine it laid on a
football field, with one end staked to the ground at the goal line at one end
of the field and the rope extending straight down the center towards the other
end. It doesn’t stop at the other goal
line, but continues straight out of the tunnel at the end, onto the parking
lot, and then the street, the park, the subdivisions, the countryside and so
on. For miles and miles, the rope lays
in a perfectly straight line over the horizon beyond your comprehensible
vision.
A person walks up to you and hands you a single red pushpin and asks you to
stick it into the rope at any point along the rope within the scope of your
visible realm. Taking 10 steps forward
you press it into the rope and step back.
What did this mean? What is the
purpose of this silliness? Consider that
the red pushpin represents the entirety of your life on this earth, and the
rope represents the entirety of the eternal kingdom. The beginning; all of the history behind you
all the way to the infinitely distant, immeasurable future.
Where is your focus? In today’s world we
are so focused on the pushpin, the 70, 80 or even 100 years of our life on this
earth and ignore the reality that there is an eternal kingdom where we will spend 99.9999999999+ %
of our existence. Why is this so hard
for mankind to comprehend? Why are we so
enamored with and addicted to this realm?
Are we so captured by what we see to believe that this is all there is,
that we are so important in the cosmos that we can fathom the entirety of
mankind’s existence?
Take a step back and look at your existence in the scope of all of
humanity. Whether you are a Christian, a
Jew, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Wiccan, an Atheist, a Muslim, a Buddhist or none
of these; you have a beginning and you will have an end, just like every other
human that has walked upon this earth.
You must have an opinion on what will happen to you when the end comes. You must have an opinion of what was here
before you. Our lives are shaped by our knowledge,
our experiences and our environment; but if this is all there is and all there
ever has been, then we must ask ourselves, why does anything we do have value?
Each day I make business decisions which impact the lives of those customers
and companies that rely on our products.
I make decisions that impact the lives of employees that work for the
company I work for. If we make a profit
or lose money this quarter, people’s livelihood is impacted and their families
are impacted. We make a difference in
this world, but it is all temporary.
Today’s decisions impact tomorrow, but what about 10 years from now, 20
years, 50 years and so on. What am I
doing today that will impact the long term future of this world? And if this is true, why should I care – I won’t
be here. Do I owe something to the
future generations of this planet?
Why? Why is it my responsibility
to ensure they have a better life? If I
have not bigger perspective than my own existence on this rock, then all of a
sudden, my social value system begins to crumble quickly. I immediately only become interested in the
comfort level of my own personal life while here, and find it very easy to
blame others for impacting my comfortable life.
When I step back and consider the eternal picture of God’s Kingdom though, my
attitude changes dramatically. All of a
sudden, my fellow man becomes more important.
I want them to be in heaven with me because I love them, and I am
interested in more than my own salvation and future, but theirs as well. All of a sudden, I’m more compassionate, more
loving to my neighbor, more forgiving, more empathetic and far less selfish
and greed stricken.
I have a infinitely small window of opportunity (the red pushpin) to influence
those around me for good, to experience God and His love and to share the
gospel. Once it is gone, that responsibility
is passed on to others. I could die
tomorrow, so what am I doing while standing on this red pushpin on the timeline
of eternity that will change the outcome of someone’s eternal well-being. That is what I really get up for each
morning, and why I am so driven to want to spread His word. I hope you feel the same today and are
willing to share this and spread His gospel along with me, for you see you have
a pushpin of your own to work within.
Be Blessed,
Rich
