Mankind has received a communiqué from the Creator. It says that all who believe the truth of His message have been chosen for travel, by way of a temporary stay on Earth, to eternal life and happiness in Heaven. The call for acceptance is toll free. Those of us who have already called upon Him have discovered that we were, in fact, chosen for the journey. The most important fact is that travel and accommodation costs have already been paid in full. The trip is a gift!

Unlike the card from the vacation promoters, God’s message is not misleading. It is clear and straight to the point.  “…from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our Gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 NIV) Is that not extraordinary?! We were chosen to be saved and to share in His glory! We can share in His glory to a degree in this life, but the ultimate glory of Christ will only be shared in that incredible experience called eternity. All who believe have been chosen to participate.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9 NIV) This is too good to keep to myself. I’m ready to declare His praises for including me among His chosen people, aren’t you?

I work on escaping the angst by recognizing that everyone there will be in the same boat. I mean, suppose after a few thousand years I think I’ve had enough. But if everyone else is looking forward to the next thousand years, I’m not gonna want to be the only one to give it up. This is, without any doubt, abstract thinking; I wonder if anyone else has these thoughts.

In a recent TV series a man had killed his wife, and with help from others the murder had been made to look like a robbery. For months the man was tortured with guilt. On his way to turn himself in to police, he phoned one of those involved with the cover-up. He said he had been thinking about hell. He said people in hell know everything that happened in their past, but they know nothing that’s happening in the present. I don’t know if that’s accurate or not. But it could be another aspect of the awfulness of spending eternity in the wrong place.

During his last session on the book of Revelation, Doc Overholt talked about the aloneness of hell – how people in hell will, for millions of years, think about how they got there, how they squandered opportunities to escape hell, and how they repeatedly rejected the gift of salvation. When I ponder that horrifying state of affairs, my eternity anxiety subsides somewhat. I mean, people who tragically wind up in hell must be continually terrified at the prospect of eternity in that indescribable place with no hope of escape. Finding oneself in hell must be the ultimate state of horror.

Rick Warren says, “…life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever [in this body], and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body – but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act – the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.”

Ok, I get all except the part about “what we will do forever in eternity.” That’s a little unclear to me. It may be, as many believe, that there will be no sense of time in eternity – the one-day-is-like-a-thousand-years concept. One thing is sure – it’s over my head. But, believing that God knows best, I have to believe that He knows how to make eternity work – even for people like me, who keep trying to figure it out ahead of time.

I’m not going to understand eternity until I get there. Nor should I expect to grasp it all. And there’s a basic principle to be applied until that day occurs. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6 NIV)

Anxious about eternity? God says don’t be! Bring anxiety to God in prayer? By all means! Bow before God with thanksgiving? It’s imperative! Thank God for the assurance of spending eternity with Him? Hallelujah!!

For twelve years I worked for an IBM division that was prime contractor for the Instrument Unit, the “brains” of the Saturn rocket that was used to deliver American astronauts to the Moon. For most of those years the work was exciting and challenging. As the Apollo Program began winding down, the work became less interesting and more tedious and boring to me. I found myself wanting to do more, thinking I had to break loose and do some great work on my own. I had visions of becoming my own boss and become independently wealthy. Eventually, IBM decided to phase out their Huntsville operation that was involved with Government contracts. I had the choice of transferring to an out-of-state location or leaving the company. Thinking this was the opportunity I had been waiting for, I opted to leave the company and try a business venture. I believed God had provided this opportunity; so I didn’t hesitate to take advantage of it.

Using my severance pay, I became a wholesale distributor of an assortment of items. To make a long story short, the venture didn’t go well. While I was able to sell some of all the various products I carried, the sales volume just never was enough. My severance fund ran out, so I had to do some borrowing to survive. Wilma took a part-time job so as to help with our survival and be at home when our children were.

Having been unable to find contentment working for one of the better companies, I tried my own thing. I found myself doing the two things I never wanted to do for a living – selling and going on the road. Some people can do either or both easily, but I couldn’t. Selling was difficult for me, and I strongly disliked being away from my family for extended time periods. So in a motel room in Tupelo I gave up my dream of doing my own great work and asked God to give me direction. In a few weeks I returned to doing the kind of work I had done before. God blessed, we paid off business debt, and eventually we recovered financially.

Do you have the picture? I left a good job with good salary and benefits because I wasn’t content. In my pursuit of contentment I came to the point of far less contentment. Do you think God had a part in all of that? I do. Even if I had agreed to a transfer with the company, I would not have been content after a time. Trying my own thing was just something I had to do to get it out of my system. Even though there was nothing inherently wrong with what I wanted to do, God knew I wasn’t suited for it. He also knew that allowing me to try it was the only way I would learn contentment.

After that venture I experienced peace and contentment while reporting to others and doing my job. There were periods of time when I was tempted to think about trying my own thing again. Those periods lasted only a few nanoseconds. The memory of the hard time remained in my frontal lobe for a very long time. I still had the desire to do my best and to excel in my work. But that desire was balanced with reality and thanksgiving. God taught me the secret of contentment. If there’s a need, He’ll do the same for you.