Life is but a wisp – here today, gone tomorrow. And since life is short, your trials simply cannot be long. Make every effort to look beyond your present reality to that glorious day when your trials will be over. Heaven is on the horizon!
Since life is so short, our trials cannot be long.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and isn’t that your word of encouragement today? The Bible says our life is but a wisp, a bit of smoke, here today, gone tomorrow. And so since life is that short, our trials simply cannot be that long. Oh, that is such good news! Because life – even if it is short – ain’t easy. But it is doable, it’s bearable, it can even be enjoyable when you realize that it makes our trials not seem to last very long. And it’s the way I choose to think. I choose to believe that life is like a snap of the finger. I choose to believe that twenty minutes ago, I was twenty years old and that when I arrive on heaven’s shores, I will enter a realm of joy and gladness that goes on forever and ever and ever. It’s coming. It’s nearly here. And that perspective makes my trials seem light and momentary. This paralysis is not going to last very much longer, so hold on, Joni, heaven’s horizons are right around the corner. Now with that, do not think that I’m being a Pollyanna, pie-in-the-sky Christian who, you know, sits around all day and “oh my goodness, I long for heaven!” True, I long for those gates of pearl; I long for the eternal city, but I’m not sitting around – okay, I’m in a wheelchair, but you know what I mean. I’m not biding my time; I’m not waiting for the pie in the sky.
I am letting my longing and love for heaven shape the way I view trials and, yes, even how I view my life here on earth. I’m looking beyond the here and now, and I’m doing it with eyes of faith. My friend David Mathis puts it this way; he says: “This is what faith does: it looks around at the present treasures of the unbelieving world, and despite what’s visible to our natural eyes, it looks through and beyond. It looks past the secondary reality we see with physical eyes to the primary realities of God, his Word, and its revealed purposes and promises.”
Friend, my pain and paralysis is a secondary reality. Oh, it may try to scream for my undivided attention, but my disability is not the main reality for me. There is a primary reality that involves God and his Word and his purposes and promises, all of which – all of them – will find their fulfillment in heaven. Like it says in Hebrews 11, I am looking for the better country, the city that has foundations and whose designer and builder is God. Yes! I love that! Then David Mathis goes on to say, “We don’t merely look to Jesus. We look at what he looked at. We don’t pretend that our earthly cities – with their imperfect equity and imperfect justice and imperfect protection and imperfect opportunities – [we don’t assume they] can satisfy our deep longing for the eternal city. We do ‘seek the city that is to come.’ We ‘desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one,’ knowing that God himself is preparing a city for us.” Second Peter 3 calls that city the home of righteousness. It says, “We are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, as you anticipate these things, make every effort.” And friend, that’s what I do every day. I make every effort. I look through and beyond the present reality to that glorious Day when my trials will be over. Our life is but a wisp, a little smoke, here today, gone tomorrow. And so, since life is that short, my trials – they simply cannot be that long. Today, may your longing and love for heaven shape the way you view your trials, because heaven – it’s about to break on your horizon.
© Joni and Friends