THE HAPPINESS OF ETERNITY

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Cor.4;17)

I wonder if we really live in such a way that we take the thought of eternal happiness seriously into consideration! There is a busyness about the necessities of life, a bustling about, that preoccupies us with our temporal existence. When we drive out in the nighttime and observe the road before us lit by our headlights we cannot see the stars. But if we were walking down the road at night without a flashlight we will see the starry heavens. When we are occupied by the necessities of life, we are too busy to see the stars. The dazzling light of temporal existence is just as dangerous as the blind guidance in the dark. When we are so occupied with clever conveniences to make life so pleasant we are no longer able to see eternity. However when suffering occurs we can appreciate the eternal glory which outweighs it.

If our suffering seems to us that it has no significance, that it gains anything for us, it is without meaning or purpose. We know that there is no gain without pain. Suffering secures for us the prize of victory in any contest. Just when the exertion of the training or preparation for an event is greatest and most painful, we encourage ourselves with the thought of the prize, and that this suffering may be the means of procuring it for us. This gives us the power of endurance. The eternal happiness outweighs the suffering. This is especially so if the affliction is brief and light. But if the suffering in fact is heavy and long drawn out we need to be reminded that this temporal life is brief and light when compared to eternal life. When temporal suffering is most oppressive, the happiness of eternity still outweighs it. When the suffering is heaviest, eternal happiness outweighs it.

Life is like warfare. We fight courageously because we long for victory over the enemy. We know that the battles will one day be over and there will be peace. We believe that one day we will be reunited with our loved ones and the suffering we are enduring will be ended. When this life is ended we will enter into the joy of the Master, and “to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. We will come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” (Hebrews 12:22ff.) This is the eternal glory that far outweighs all troubles and makes them light and momentary.

(I acknowledge Soren Kierkegaard, The Gospel of Suffering, The Happiness of Eternity, for some of these thoughts.)