THE JOURNEY NEVER ENDS

My personal belief is that when we die, physically die, in this life, we are immediately with God forever in the life to come, whatever that life is or, perhaps, wherever it is. We believers call that state of life we move into after death “heaven”.  Yet no one knows what that life is like. Those who have had a near-death experience, which I believe are real, have only received a momentary glimpse of the life to come. What that full life is like, we have no clue.

Even Paul, who truly believed in life after physical death could only state that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared” for us.” (1 Cor. 2:9) The life to come is simply beyond our human imaginations. We may use them at times especially when we think about those whom we have loved who are now living that new life, imagining, wondering what they are now experiencing and believing that it can’t get any better than that for them and, eventually, for us.

Yet between now and then, there is a life still to lead. It is a journey we are on that never ends until this physical life ends. This journey is not about doing everything Jesus says we should do in order to earn that next life, rather it is about being a disciple of Jesus. Being guaranteed heaven when we die does not give us a pass to do whatever we want in this life. In fact, for us believers, it almost, if not, often makes this journey even more difficult for us.

Those who believe that when this physical life ends, there is nothing, have no moral obligation to do good or refrain from doing what is not good. Whatever the consequences of their behavior is will be played out as the results of that behavior and be played out in this life. Of course, the same can be said for us who are believers. We pay for our sins in this life in this life and we are rewarded for our good behavior in this in this life. Payment does not await us in the life to come.

So what’s the difference? It’s all about discipleship. It is about teaching other about what we believe by the way we live our lives. It’s not about being rewarded for our good deeds either in the here-and-now or in the life to come. Nor is it about not doing good because we are afraid of being punished for our misdeeds sooner or later. It is about dedicating our life so that each day we become more and more like Jesus.

It is also about knowing we will never be perfect, not in this life anyway. No one is. No one ever was except the One whose disciple we are. But that is not an excuse for not trying to be our best each day. When we have not, what we have learned is that we have suffered pain for our selfishness. And when we have, we have learned that we were rewarded some home in some way.

Life in this life is a journey that never ends. In the meantime, heaven can wait.