The Remodel

Don't be surprised when you finally decide to make a major change in your life, that one of the first requirements is to be patient. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will you be. If we decide to begin living for Him, to being more positive, more spiritual- to making major "home improvements" to our lives, realize up front that it will take precious time. The problem is, we want to see the results right away, and it is not going to happen this way. Some things take months, even years, to fully manifest in us and in our lives. The person who wants a better house may have decided on what it will look like when the model is finished- after all the building and tearing up has been done. But it may seem that all the remodeling is making it much worse now- walls are coming down, things are a mess, carpet is torn up, plumbing all exposed- surely this old house was so much better before. You may even have the urge to shout "Stop! Just stop- put everything back as it was, it was better- and safer - before, as it was". What you don't understand is, all the confusion, all of the mess, all of the seemingly destroyed landscape is being redone- it is being made better. One day, we may all get a mansion right here on earth- if we are patient enough to wait.

The Adventure Continues

I think that if we expect heaven to be a kind of "happily ever after" moment, we may be disillusioned. Not that it won't be beautiful, magnanimous beyond all of our wildest dreams (as would any place be simply because we are in the presence of Him, the great Iam), but we may get more than we ever bargained for. We may be commissioned for further adventures in His army- some at His side, others here on earth, possibly even in other worlds not yet known to us-for a time and then another time. One thing is for certain, it shall never be boring. It will be life, but more abundant. We are told precious little about life after the death of the body, some because we could not understand or conceive- but we are given hints, glimpses. Just as young children are given tiny books to read with simple stories, one day they will be studying great literature, science, medicine, arts- wonderful, complex things. At present we are only in preschool, having heard the story of the great king and all of his princes and princesses in simple adventures. Later we will discover stories of the king with more depth- and one day, instead of reading about the adventures we shall live them, and finally know that all of those years the stories were not about others. They were about us, and were our very prophecy foretold. In time and beyond time, born and reborn again only for Him- our adventure surely continues . . .

The Guest List

I suspect that death is nothing to be feared, though we all do. It is the dinner celebration we must all partake in, and every morsel of this life shall be remembered. What we never realized was that this whole course of life was nothing but the appetizer. He has already been preparing a feast for us, and it is nearly time for the real meal to begin. Wonderful conversation, a warm fire nearby and the final feeling that we have arrived where we belong, and have longed for all our life- it is a dinner we dare not miss.