Eternity Perspective

¹⁷ For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
¹⁸ while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 
                                                                     2 Corinthians 4:17-18

    I wonder how often we see our daily lives as eternal, as vessels to impact eternity, as Paul does in these verses. Knowing the American way of life as I do I would venture to guess that few of us do. I know that I don't. I get caught up in myself, and what I want to do -whether that be watching television, reading a book, or just sitting around- and totally miss out on the fact that God has a plan for this moment of my life! So, often we quote Jeremiah 29:11 and use it to soothe our worries for the future, without realizing that it also applies to us now. It applies not just in a passive way either, this thought that God has a plan should spur us to action now!
    Step back with me for a moment and lets take a look at our lives. I once read that the average person spends approximately 4.5 hours a day on the computer and television. (This does not include texting, or videogames which can cause some people to easily rack up 10, 12, and ever 16 hours using some sort of media!) Now if Mr. Average keeps up the 4.5 hours a day thing, he will have, by the time he dies at 75*, have spent 14+** years on the computer and television!
   Oh, my friends, life is so short already, how can we justify squandering the time that we do have in such a manner? This time is not given to us, that we might spend it for ourselves, but that we might spend in the service of Him who gave it to us. We have not been placed here haphazardly, nor has our allotted time been given us randomly. We have been placed in our families, in our churches, and in our generations, that we might impact certain people. The time that we have is to be used as a tool to further this end, please, let's don't squander it on the temporal things of this world. I don't know about you, but it would absolutely break my heart if on judgement day, Christ asked me what I did with the time He had given me, and all I had to give Him was dust, when He deserves all that I am. We only get this one chance, this one gift of time to work for Christ, may we spend it with eternity in mind.



* This, of course, is assuming that you began seriously surfing the web at 2 months. (hehe)
** This is according to my very faulty math skills, and it does not take into account the other forms of media that are popular today (i.e. texting, videogames, etc...)