I can't even believe I am 40 years old. I have officially entered a new category by which I only previously assessed those in their 40s, well before I entered this realm: OLD. Of course with my age I have learned a few things too. Not only have I come to grasp that life is rather unpredictable, and that there are joys to be found in areas I never knew, but also I have learned first hand of some of the greatest pains in life.
Just two weeks ago I had a good friend die. It was completely unexpected for everyone around him. He was the epitome of health. He was an exemplar in service and humility. He achieved a lot in his 59 years of life. And with all the ongoing plans and preparation he was making, only God knows the full extent of what would have been should his days have reached as far as his dreams. But it is all over, at least as we knew him.
I couldn't help but step back from it all, even as it struck me pretty powerfully and painfully. It all got me wondering. I wondered over the brevity of life. No matter how you look at it, life is short, very short. I wondered about pain, how all of us seek to avoid it and escape it, but it inevitably comes and goes and comes again. And with death, some of the greatest wounds occur among those left behind, even as all of us still living inch nearer and nearer to our own expiration date. There is no escape from pain. I wondered as well of what all joys amount to in this life. While I have yet to meet the person who doesn't pursue their own joy, it had me curious as to what joy ultimately means. Why do we pursue it so passionately? What do we believe it amounts to? Do we ever think we shall find a joy that is truly lasting?
And as I pondered all the many philosophical twists and turns of such, it led me to one more ultimate question: What sort of existence would I want? Put just a bit differently: what would I do differently in a dream world I could create? If all of this life has explained and exposed me to certain things that are less than desirable, then what sort of life would I plan instead? And so I started thinking. As I did it all started to become clear what type of world I envisioned.
I envision a world where pain is no longer. There is never a day as a parent when my kids hurt, visibly showing the agony of the pain that they experience from a cut finger, or a scraped knee, or a heart crushed, or anything else, in which I am anything but pained too. It hurts me to see them hurt. I would far rather avoid all the pains, simple or sophisticated. I'd rather avoid altogether both personally, or corporately, the pitfalls of physical or emotional pains that come upon us. I'd rather be in a world where doctors, nurses, counselors, medications, surgeries...were not a part of it. Rather than run because of fear associated with pains I'd rather all the greatest of fears be gone. The world I think of would not have pain as a part of it whatsoever.
Closely related to that would be a world free of evil. Even when the grief and pains others feel have absolutely no ability to reach me I would far rather live in a world where evil were no longer. No more injustice, oppression, inequality, murder, rape, theft, greed, arrogance, hatred... I am pretty confident we would all far rather be a part of a world free of evil.
The world I dream of would be one of joy. We all pursue joy, but unfortunately we don't always find it. Sometimes we find bits and pieces of it, but are always eager to find more. I'd rather we live in a world where joy weren't any bit fleeting, but was always substantive, and never eroding, but ever and only increasing. I'd love to know a world where the joy we all had left us completely contented.
Of course we can all envision in bits and pieces a world like this. We have experienced joy, and times free of pain. We can remember vacations that seem to completely captivate us and be a sort of fulfillment of all the "best" of what this life has, and even what we can imagine. But none of what any of us knows in this life is any bit lasting. Every joy we know here, every comfort, every moment of joy, freedom from evil and pain, it is all but a moment. Everything we are capable of knowing and experiencing is but temporary. And that is a problem. Thus the best world we could envision is a world in which all this good we dream of is unending.
What type of world would I create? I suppose a more concise manner to answer that would be simply to point to the very world that GOD promises in the bible. We again need to allow for the wonderful promises of GOD in Revelation 21-22 to remind us of the great hope that is assured to all of us who belong to HIM.
Amid the highest of joys attainable to us now in this life, or the deepest of griefs we suffer now, we must never lose sight of this coming reality.
“...no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him” - 1 Cor. 2:9
No comments:
Post a Comment