by Ruth Stitt
– Homeward Bound Series – Ruth’s Story –
It is not tragedy but tedium that makes me long for heaven.
I’ve shared in the usual and tragic losses common to mortals. I’ve said goodbye to people I’ve loved and have lost others suddenly without the chance to say goodbye. I’ve witnessed the calamities faced by fragile human beings confronted with hurricanes, floods, car accidents, incurable diseases, war, and hateful violence.
These things can and do make me think sometimes, like the psalmists, “How long, Lord, how long?”
But what brings me to that question more often is the everyday reality of staying alive. Our bodies, our minds, our relationships, our work, and our possessions all require never-ending maintenance, and this can become quite tedious and wearisome.
In my older phase of life, I can now point to the house that needs to be cleaned today, and then cleaned again the next day. The pills, supplements, exercises, and therapies that I use today, I must repeat tomorrow. Bills paid today will come due again next month, and each time I must remember.
Even my various work tasks related to counseling, ministering, writing, or music can become mundane and tedious if I don’t intentionally keep them flexible and variable. Even in these pursuits that I usually find meaningful, my heart sometimes longs for an endpoint, a moment when I can say, “That’s enough.”
But it never comes. I am, like the rest of humanity, caught in what feels sometimes like an endless cycle of futility.
The wisest man of ancient times, King Solomon, captured this theme in Ecclesiastes. Solomon had climbed to the heights of spiritual experience. He bowed low in the newly dedicated temple while the glory of the Lord came down so powerfully that everyone present was paralyzed with awe and worship.
Solomon had also slid down the slippery path to the depths of carnal experience. He used his sensory powers and his intellect, indulging every appetite–for sex, food, wealth, beauty, and knowledge. Alas, he found that nothing would satisfy. He concluded that It was all “meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Eccl. 1:14).
Another wise man, A.W. Tozer, examining the timelessness of God and the temporariness of mortals, wrote,
“To be made for eternity and forced to dwell in time is for mankind a tragedy of huge proportions. All within us cries for life and permanence, and everything around us reminds us of mortality and change.”*
This dilemma itself, whether it comes in the form of catastrophe or tedium, is what should confirm in us our need for Christ. He is our only link to relief from either. He is the only bridge to heaven and eternity.
Maybe you are like me, trying to maintain an aging body and performing the hundred small things that keep life going forward each day. Or maybe you are younger, raising small children or building a career, or both, waking each day to diaper changing, food preparation, car lines, traffic jams, meetings, computer screens, deadlines, more food preparation, bath time. Around and around it goes.
Can we rise each day with the knowledge that even as we do these mundane, everyday tasks, we are walking toward heaven? We are eternal beings living within a temporal experience, and this should give us hope and courage, as it has for all the saints and martyrs that have gone before us.
This life also has moments of sublime pleasure, inspiration, and wonder, if we’re doing it right. These moments point us back to the perfection that was present at creation, the joyful existence we were made for. They also give us, if we are alert to them, glimpses of heaven, where at last our joy will be made permanent!
But long ago this earthly realm was cursed and damaged. It will wear out eventually, no matter what we do. That means that whatever we experience here is not meant to fully satisfy us, because it will not last.
All that we accomplish with love and faith, whether big or small, will keep us squarely on that path to our heavenly destination. I believe God smiles as he sees us trudging away in the right direction.
When the Spirit comes in, he teaches us this. We were made for a heavenly home, where there is neither tragedy nor tedium, only the endless chorus of “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).
This is our blessed hope. Tears are wiped away and smiles of joy take their place. Impermanence is swept up into eternal life, and the mortal takes on immortality.
This, I believe, should be enough to keep our hearts whole, steady, and thankful each day. We remain faithful where God has planted us, knowing that glorious rewards await us.
*A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy. New York: Harper Collins Press, 1961, p. 41.
Ruth Stitt has been a devoted lover of God and his word since her early adulthood. She has served as a wife and mother, professional counselor, minister, Bible teacher, worship leader, and jazz musician for many years. This variety of life experiences has given her a rich perspective on how Scripture comes to life each day if we are alert to it. Ruth is now semi-retired from counseling work and spends her time writing, playing music, and enjoying life with family and friends in the Texas hill country. You can connect with Ruth on her website and on Instagram.
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