Happy Now?

This week, someone told me that we shouldn’t spend so much time worrying about what happens after we die. She said the important thing is that we are happy while we are alive. And when I relayed this to someone else the next day, they said she was right.
I absolutely disagree.
And I absolutely agree.
I was truly taken aback at the thought of living without regard for what happens when I die. I literally lost track of the conversation for a moment! I considered the perspective of this life being “it”, and I felt so sad. There was a real emptiness as I pondered two possibilities; a) a blank space at the end of my days, and b) a respectable shot (I think) at staying on the cool, blue side of things. Problem is, I know I don’t want to go to sleep forever (it’s only fun for the 1st 10 hours or so), and I am equally unsettled at the thought of hitching my eternity wagon to a "maybe". While it could be interesting to take my chances with the more-rights-than-wrongs system, who is to say that I properly understand how the scoring works? And what if I don’t add correctly? What if I forget to carry a 1 or something? It would be a bummer of colossal proportions to find that out after the game was already over.
That said, I completely agree with the idea presented at the beginning of this missive. Why? Because “God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, that anyone who would believe in Him would never die, but would have eternal life.” If you a follower of Christ, you absolutely do not need to worry about what will happen to you when you die. You know that because of His sacrifice, your eternity will be spent in His presence, in His kingdom. And with that, a life of joy is the only thing that makes sense. While earthly burdens will weigh you down, and human trials will test you, a core belief in Christ has the capacity to carry you through and beyond any muck or mire that this life slings in your direction. And you don’t even have to keep score!
I hope I will live a long time here on earth. I think I need at least another 45-50+ years to take care of the things I want to do. I have a feeling that 104 is a great age, and I’d like to find out for sure. But if I lived that long with only an earthly perspective, it might be rather challenging to enjoy those last 20 or 30 years, not knowing what came next. And since my eternity—the totality of time without beginning or end—is going to be spent somewhere, I expect those last decades here will be a bit more peaceful and blessed now that I have my seat there reserved.

Got Crayons?

I learned something new today about offerings to God. I had nothing upbeat or joyful to hand Him, so I offered Him my tears and my brokenness and my sadness instead. I found out that they, too, can be placed at the base of the cross. And He accepts them as if they were precious to Him.
There they sit, like crayoned scribbles on the fridge. Certainly not fancy, but maybe still art; forged onto the page with so much effort, tongue hanging out, gripping the color with all available strength until the shape is squeezed onto the paper. “What are they?” Who knows, but they were drawn from the heart, even if they don't look like much of anything to anyone else. And He loves them and hangs them up with tender magnets, and rejoices over them as if they were acceptance letters into the finest universities in Heaven. And they are.
I don’t want to hang my scribbles anywhere except on God’s refrigerator. No where else do they have the same value. No where else are they received with so much grace and love. And only in His eyes do they become priceless works of art.