Photo by Sundaram Ramaswamy

If any of you are PBS television watchers, you may remember that one of their sponsors is Viking River Cruises. One of the commercials features Torstein Hagen, the founder and chairman of Viking,and he narrates, while beautiful European scenes scroll across the screen:

“When you really philosophize about it, there is only one that you don’t have enough of, and that’s time.

  When you come to that realization, I think it’s really important that you spend your time wisely. I think most of us have no regrets about things we did, but I think we can have regrets about things we did not do.  More people have come around to this, so what one wants in life is experiences, and that’s a way of filling the time one has. And what better way of spending time than traveling, continuing to educate ourselves, and broaden our minds.” 

Hagen’s words struck me.  There is some truth to his words, but I immediately recognized the difference in our worldviews, as I am someone who believes in eternity.

The world understands Christianity as the religion where people go to heaven or hell for all eternity. As Christians, particularly evangelicals, we focus on salvation. Yet for all of this talk about heaven and salvation, in general I don’t think that the average Christian even fully knows what the gift of eternal life really is for us. 

The game changer for me was when I read a book called Heaven by Randy Alcorn. This book gave me a fuller scope of heaven based on Scripture and filled in the gaps of so much that I didn’t know as a Christian, even though this is my eternal destination. It is so good to know more about where I am going. Alcorn extrapolates about heaven based on what is true about the character of God and Scripture as well, as there are so many things we still don’t know and won’t know about heaven until we arrive there.

Knowing more about where I am going truly changed and informed the way I live my life. I felt in awe of God’s goodness about how he had an endless amount of time for us to live in a renewed and restored creation with him.  All of this has helped me to work to live well today, to seize the day each day because our lives here on earth matter, so I have to and want to make this count. 

Of course God is so good that he would give me infinite time to be with him, to keep growing and learning, to fulfill my vocational calling throughout eternity. It helped to sharpen my focus because I am one of those people that loves to dream and wants to do everything I love and dream about. I decided to focus on what would have the highest Kingdom impact through my gifts, skills and training, and this certainly required some surrender, letting go, and discernment. I received a sense of consolation that in eternity, I would have all of the time in the world literally, to do all of the things that I have dreamed about. I don’t have to travel the world or feel like I am missing out because I will have all of eternity to explore the world, if not the entire universe.

The misconception that heaven is a place where departed souls go to float around on clouds and sing and play harps for all eternity is common, unfortunately. I have heard some Christians say that heaven seems like it would be boring.  What seems most sad to me is that people can’t even imagine what heaven would be like.  Heaven is an actual place, and we will have things to do! Our vocational callings do not end when we die in our earthly bodies here. God will give us assignments, and places to live that he prepared in advance for us. I can just imagine that I will have the best and most fulfilling jobs for all of eternity.

Do we know how good God is that we can imagine the goodness that He gives us for the rest of eternity? In the end, I agree with Torstein Hagen in that time is a precious commodity, and we must spend it wisely on this side of heaven. Where we differ of course is how we spend that time.

How is God inviting you to sharpen your focus, and let go of other things or even dreams that do not have the highest Kingdom impact through your gifts, skills and talents? How is the gift of eternal life informing the way you live your life today? I invite you to consider and pray through these questions, that you can know how good God is that He would give us such amazing life forever.

Sharon Lee Song lives and works in South Los Angeles for Servant Partners, an urban missions organization. Inspired by her own transformation through self-care and soul care, Sharon became a certified personal trainer, Holy Yoga instructor, and spiritual director. She’s committed to using what she’s learned from her training to support others in living healthy, sustainable, urban spiritual lives.