Blogathon2012: #16 - In the Light of Eternity...

He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy]

Ecclesiastes 3: 11b (The Amplified Bible)

Today I saw the following quote by Francis Chan:

 It resonates with me, someone who regularly asks the question: "In the light of eternity, what does it matter?"


I remember taking one of those workshops where you try to figure out your personality type, extrovert(E) or introvert(I), that feeling(F) or thinking(T), sensing(S) or intuition(N), judging(J) or perceiving(P), and where you figure if you're IFNJ etc.. The workshop leader asked a question about the room in which we were seated, how differently people respond when they 'look' at the room simply because of their personality type.. Some would look at the aesthetics and think about adding flowers, some would want to organize the furniture, some would want to clean it up etc.
It struck me that I didn't seem to 'fit' into any of the normal responses. 
I wouldn't waste time even thinking about the room, who cares how it looks. What does it matter when there are millions of people starving, who don't know the Lord...I wanted to shout I don't care! 
I'm a pragmatist with no taste for the frills of life, simply because I am committed to living with the basics so that many others may just live. At the same time I am so glad that there are people who do care to make our environment aesthetically pleasing.
The underlying question should always be:
What does it matter in the light of eternity?


My 'philosophy' of life alters slowly as I gain God's view of life. What matters is that which is of eternal worth. How we do tasks, for instance, with our whole heart as an act of worship to God, is of eternal worth. The actual task has no eternal value.


I need to be proactive in how I live by constantly interacting with His view. To do that I must interact with Him, in His Word and in prayer and reflection.
My greatest desire for my sons is that they find their purpose and their life goals shaped by that which is eternal, that which matters to God.
I simply love what David Ravenhill wrote about his father, Leonard Ravenhill here:

“My father lived daily in light of eternity, always seeking to please the One who enlisted him as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Before he ever stood in the pulpit, he stood before God. He was a man of prayer. Prayer was his life and his preaching reflected the fact that he had been alone with God.” 
DAVID RAVENHILL

Guess what biography I want to read now?

Be blessed if you should stop by.