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Having trouble coping....

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indianabob:

--- Quote from: Extol on December 08, 2022, 06:51:04 PM ---Ralph,

The thing that helps me the most is contemplating the future, when King Jesus will reign on earth and (later on) everything will be made right. Christians in the west don't spend nearly enough time meditating on this; there are two main reasons for this, I think.

1. Our lives are more comfortable than any other generation in history, and more comfortable than most of the world today.

2. We read verses like Rev. 4:8 and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come...and think "Gee, that sounds like it might get tiring after a while." Or we think of "heaven," even if we sincerely believe in it, as some vague, faraway notion; that we'll be spiritual beings just floating around...seeing our relatives, yes, but not really doing anything; or we think of the afterlife as merely an extension of our favorite pastimes ("Ol' Uncle Dave is up there playing golf...") If that is what it is, we reason, then better to play golf here, and not have to suffer the pain of death. With the comfortable lives we have, these ideas fail to encourage much excitement, when in fact it is this life that is but a vapor, and the next that will have no end...and be far better.

In his latest letter, my Dad told me of a funeral he went to where a daughter reminisced about vacations with her departed father. My dad then wrote how he hopes to go on some trips with his sons, because he doesn't want to regret not doing something. In the same letter, he wrote about a recent visit to a cousin who is in poor health, and that it might be the last time. The letter wasn't overly morbid, but it carried the suggestion that this life is what it's all about (even though my dad shares my beliefs.) I had to remind him the Grand Canyon will still be there in the resurrection. (If for some reason it's not, there will probably be some better, more beautiful version of it.) He will have ages to visit his cousin, only he won't be in poor health; it will be a restored cousin on a renewed earth. Any trip he takes with his sons, or any visit to relatives, will be a more satisfying experience when done after death. Life will be indescribably better and unimaginably longer than life is now.

Even if we don't know exactly what things will be like, we know enough to meditate on it and rejoice in what lies ahead.

--- End quote ---

= = =
Good evening Jesse,
Great to hear from you once again.
Loved your comments and appreciate your understanding of the details of this life.
=
It is natural to appreciate a few good things in our lives when we have much deprivation, but it is also a trial of faith when we have been receiving so much in the way of blessings that we come to expect it and take for granted as our due.

That is one reason for the value of contrast that God arranges for us to experience.

Thanks again for your advice. Bob

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