What was my hope?

Growing up, I hoped for long life, I hoped for family. I hoped for to be rich and famous, I wanted to have lots of intimacy with women, which was probably supercharged by pornography, but mostly, I wanted good things. Intimacy is a good thing but my way about it was maybe not the best.

But my best hope was not hope at all. It was just wanting this short life to be good. What else was there? If people are lucky, they live to be seventy. If they are very fortunate, they last until eighty or even ninety. We are in awe of the few who survive their one hundredth birthday or a bit higher.

But is that hope?

Yes, to have riches and fame might not be the way to happiness, but it couldn’t hurt. I guess if you were super-rich or ultra-famous there could be some drawbacks but those things might insulate you from the harshness of the world if they didn’t corrupt and overcome you.

To have family is a huge blessing. At least if they are kind and loving as my family is. To have intimacy with a woman in marriage is wonderful. Outside of marriage, I have found sex to be less than optimal, and it is a sin.

But when I encountered Christ, the living God, I realized there is more hope and more life than I imagined. It is important to do well and to prosper in this life, but I am not rich or famous. I have a small family of my own, and we are blessed, but the real brightness is that when we die in Christ, we go to Heaven.

Is Heaven a boring place where we float around playing harps with nothing much else to do? No! Heaven is a place with rejoicing and happiness. It is a place of peace. There is no conflict in Heaven. There are no tears. There is no war, there is no violence, no murder, no adultery, no theft, no drugs, and no want. It is a place of eternal joy where we praise our Creator and He delights in us.

So while I seek for good things in this life, the afterlife is what I look forward to, and you can, too! You can seek God, and if you follow after Him, he’ll give you good things in this life. You might not be rich or famous, but you’ll be content, and you’ll be watched over by the Lord of the Universe.

I hope you seek God today.

Jeremiah 29:13
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

John 6:36-38
37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.