Stay This Moment, Pt. 3: Seeing God in the Moments of our Lives

Notation after the fact:

Below is a post that I intentionally wrote a little while back, but didn't share. The point was to bring an idea of looking ahead. I hope that comes through as you read this. Mostly that it points you ahead to the future hope we have in Christ. Will it be the final article in this series? I had one other idea that I have yet to write so we will see. I made a couple minor edits for posting now. Also, no photo for this one, though there is no real need for one on this post. Besides, how do you take a picture for the future? And so, I hope you enjoy this article I wrote while on my flight to Montana a few weeks ago.

"Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay." - Sam Abell

As I sit on this plane, a lot of things could come to mind. Here I am high above the clouds, looking down at just an awesome display of God's handiwork. So rare it is that we get to see the 'sky' from the other side. Well, rare for me.

But as I write this article, I recognize the fact that what I am writing won't be posted immediately. I'm looking towards a future moment when I can get some free wifi and share it. Not to mention the other work that goes into a blog. In fact, I'm not totally sure when I will post this, as by design, I wanted this to be the final article for the Stay this Moment series.

In the first we looked into the past, the second the fleeting nature of time, and at the time of this writing, this is intended to be the fourth. So why am I writing it if it won't be published for a time? Because I want to convey this idea of looking ahead. In other words, I want to discuss that not all moments are now, but instead are out there; There is a future hope, a future moment, an eternity ahead of us all.

Looking ahead, much like looking to the past, can be a challenge. In the worldly sense we look ahead to events on the calendar. We stress over to-do lists, making sure we carve out enough time for events that haven't even happened yet. For example, this trip I am heading on I have been looking forward to for a while now. And now here it is.

But it just as easily could've fallen through. And as it stands at the time of this writing, I have no idea what to expect the following few days.

In other words, for the things of this world, the future is as fleeting as the past. It's like these clouds I'm flying high above right now; here for a moment and then dissipate.

I'm reminded of A Christmas Carol. I've yet to actually read the book, but I have seen many of the myriad movie adaptations of this classic story.

As many of us likely have, I find the final ghost, the ghost of Christmas yet to come, to be an interesting and somewhat frightening character. He embodies all that we fear about the future, all the uncertainty, and the possible horrors that are to come.

He acts as a final wake up call for Scrooge, and hopefully as a reminder to us all that once we are in the grave, the time for change has past.

I don't desire for this post to be overly somber, but you can't discuss the future without discussing the topic of death itself

In theology we have a big word: eschatology. It means the study of last things. Most people focus almost entirely on the events of the end of this world, but the topic of "last things" covers so much more than that; eschatology isn't only about those events covered in movies like "Left Behind", but of the world to come; both the new heavens and earth, as well as the lake of fire, and of death itself, even before those more final things come to pass.

It's mildly disconcerting to write about this topic as we're 36,000 feet up facing pretty rough turbulence, but I digress.

The bottom line is that there is a lot in the future, both near and far. From the schedule to keep this week, to the final destination of every person.

And yet much of it is veiled. The only certainty we really can have of the future is where we will spend our 'life after death'. Isn't that strange? As much as we strive for certainty and consistency, the only absolute that we can know about the future is where we spend it.

The only certainty we really can have of the future is where we will spend our 'life after death'.

Know this, that there are only two options, and what you do with Jesus Christ is the only factor that will determine which. The Lake of Fire is the final 'resting' place of those who reject Christ. It is not a place of rest, of partying it up, of sinning without fear of God, nor is it a place where you're annihilated, never to exist again. Instead it is a place of eternal judgement under the wrath of God, never ceasing, never relenting.

On one hand it is certainly to scare you into salvation. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But more so it should lift your eyes to the one that despite your sin and the fact that you and all of us deserve to go there, would bring about salvation. It should focus our eyes on God, who would sacrifice His own Son so that sinners would be brought into peace with Him.

For those who have been saved by grace, drawn into salvation; we have been rescued from this fate. We have been given a new hope, a future hope, a hope that does not disappoint. It is more sure than all the moments that are to come in this life, and more real than those that have come and went.

Knowing this, how then are we to live?

So to close out this entry, I want to bring it back to the beginning. As humans we desire earnestly that, at least some, moments would stay forever. But we know that they can't. And as much as photography may give a glimpse into freezing a piece of time in place, a still two-dimensional image is a poor substitute.

But one day when that future hope is realized and we see Him face to face, we'll never have to worry about the best moments in life coming and going, because we will have only the best for all of eternity.