“The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?” –Crazy Love
Ouch, that stung.
Honestly, I think we are consumed with the benefits of heaven. We want a life without struggles. We want to see our family and friends that we have lost. We want to live in paradise.
But what if heaven had sorrow, pain and suffering? What if heaven did have sickness, wars, poverty and loss? What if it were nothing more than a place where you could hear, feel and talk to a tangible God?
Is that really good enough?
Would we still sacrifice our lives to get there? Would we worship the way we do and look forward to the eternal life that follows this mortal one?
I don’t think we would.
The truth is, even though heaven is a place where there is eternal joy, we have completely missed it.
In our evangelizing we teach people about Jesus by saying, “Follow Jesus and you will have eternal life!” Or “Follow Jesus and you won’t go to hell!”
While all of that is true, we are essentially saying “get your hell insurance!”
See, even if God never answered another prayer, even if He never guided your life anymore, He still deserves to be worshipped. He still deserves to be praised. He deserves our attention, our sacrifices, our lives.
That’s what Heaven is about.
Worshipping God, not because of what He can do for you, but because He is worthy.
(part 1)