Sometimes you feel like you’re invincible; like nothing can touch you and life will never end.
You’re on top of the world!
There are times in life when things are going so well that everything looks brighter and all things are possible. It simply couldn’t get any better – ever. Those moments can last and last and last – like a beautiful sunset… its colours touching across the horizon with no end in sight.
Not everyone relates to life that way – some people dwell on their happy moments and some people don’t even recognise the happy moments when they are smacked in the face like these moments are a wet, slimy, slobbering fish.
It doesn’t make the moments less real.
Death is the party pooper of all happy moments. The death of a beloved pet, a distant relative or that one person that is always on your side. Death touches us all in some way or another and although each reaction is different, there is still a reaction.
We forget as humans that this life isn’t forever. We get lost in our existence like it’s endless and when the thread is cut, we act surprised to the inevitability of our mortality.
I have always known God; I have always felt God and although most of my life has been lived unconsciously (I am a very live-in-the-moment kinda gal), I have very rarely felt outside His presence or influence.
A few nights ago I had the same empty feeling I got almost six years ago, which had me running to the feet of my Father, and consequently to my local church.
The very idea of living without God terrifies me, so having that very physical and tangible awareness that His presence isn’t there is debilitating. Let’s just say I don’t cope very well with the idea of dying and going to hell or even the idea of ceasing to exist.
Heaven and Hell represent very different ideas to people. The most generic of them being that heaven is where animals are all friends, and people walk around singing Kumbaya on streets made out of gold. Hell is a fiery hotpot where the devil dances around sticking people with his pitchfork.
SIDE NOTE: I have written but haven’t posted a blog on heaven and what people think it is when they ponder about it, so I won’t elaborate on it now.
Heaven and Hell to me is the presence of God or lack thereof.
Six years ago, before I joined Hillsong Church in London, I was plagued with nightmares of darkness and emptiness. I would wake up crying and hurting, physically wanting to throw up because of these dreams and all that encompassed those dreams was quite literally nothing. Emptiness. Nothing to see, nothing to aim for, nothing to have, nothing there.
It was an eye-opening realisation of what my relationship with God was. I can’t say that I took my relationship with God for granted as a child, but as a child, I also didn’t put enough emphasis on the importance that the relationship actual holds.
God created eternity in your heart
The physical feeling of emptiness (being without God) reminded me that God created eternity in our hearts. That’s why death seems so unnatural and unfair. We were created for eternity, no sight of an end.
Some people may be horrified with the idea; after all, our experience is limited to what we know here and now and some of those “here’s” and “now’s” are not very pretty; some are right down violating and inhumane, so why would we want to prolong the experience?
And yet, just like we were created for eternity, we were also created for love and abundant, happy living – the world that we experience in this day and age wasn’t what was planned at the beginning of creation. So stop thinking of your life as a mistake or a fluke. Your life, your work and your efforts are not happenstance. You add value and quality to your environment and those around you.
Make the most of who God made you and shine so others can shine too. We may not see the ripple effect our actions create straight away (and sometimes not even at all) but they’re there and they matter. So make the choice to give good fruits.
Your fruit – choices and actions – have far reaching consequences that you need to be aware of!
God planting eternity in our hearts means that our fruit is not temporary and the seeds we have and plant ourselves have eternal value, not just mortal ones.
Planted. I like the image that word creates. Planted has purpose and meaning. You plant a tree to provide fruit. We were created and thus planted to provide fruit. The fruit doesn’t have to be the same as anyone else’s but it does need to be provided. What we do here, doesn’t just feed us in the now but it should transfer and transcend to life after death.
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