Treasuring the Right Things and Finishing Well

As a sandwich post between my two posts on what people treasure, my good friend Joey Bailey, Family Life Pastor at Green Run Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, had a great article about his Dad (who recently passed away) and what he learned from him:

Longing for Heaven on Our Best Days

"Our passions are not too strong, they are too weak. We are far too easily pleased."

These words penned by C.S. Lewis have been much on my mind as of late. Over the past several months I watched as my father suffered through pancreatic cancer. For a man in whom I rarely saw weakness or failure, this last battle was a difficult one to watch for those by his side. My father taught me many things over the past thirty-four years. I learned how to be loyal to my wife and children. I learned to appreciate a day’s work and the provision it brings to the family. I learned that a man’s duty is to use his God-given strength, wisdom, and resources to help those in need and protect those who cannot protect themselves. I learned how to be unwavering in my convictions without hypocrisy. But it was in his last few hours of earthly life that my dad taught me his greatest lesson.

This world is not my home. This truth is no more evident for the Christian than in times of pain and sorrow. I watched as my dad’s suffering focused his eyes of faith more clearly than ever towards heaven. I saw the anticipation of hope fulfilled grow stronger in his heart. The inward groans of a Christian grow increasingly louder as they near the final stage of their redemption. The crossing of the Jordan puts Egypt forever behind them and the land of promise firmly under their feet. How sweet must be the tears of one who finally stands at the water’s edge ready to cross the final obstacle to an eternity of ever increasing joy in Christ.

There is no question that suffering in the life of a saint increases a longing for heaven. But what about blessing? I saw my dad long for heaven on his worst days. Do I find myself longing for heaven on my best days? Heaven is not simply the redemption of our bodies from all sin, sickness, and pain. God did not bring the Hebrews across the dry ground of the Red Sea just to escape the bondage of Egypt. Heaven is the fulfillment, the ultimate reality of the rich inheritance of all God has given us through Jesus Christ. It is a journey from Egypt to Canaan. Every good pleasure, every happy moment, every object of beauty and majesty in this life is a mere glimpse of what awaits us in heaven. The strongest passions of our hearts can only gain a small taste of delight here.

The danger for us lies in becoming, as Lewis observes, “too easily pleased” with earthly pleasures. We allow our appetites to be satisfied with appetizers, rather than allowing these things to increase our hunger for the real feast. Good days are good gifts from our good God. They are good because they are meant to make us long for heaven just as much as the dark and difficult days. Let us lay aside weak passions and small pleasures so that we may press onward in our journey to a land rich with delight far beyond our wildest imaginations.

Thanks, dad for teaching me how to fight and run in such a way as to finish well and receive the prize!