From “Living For What Will Matter 30 Million Years From Now” blog, posted by Randy Alcorn, April 2, 2014 at:
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When it comes to money, financial planners often tell us, “Don’t think just three months or three years ahead. Think thirty years ahead.” Christ, the ultimate investment counselor, takes it further. He says, “Don’t ask how your investment will be paying off in just thirty years. Ask how it will be paying off in thirty million years.” That’s not only true of how we invest our money, but every part of our lives, including our God-given resources of time and talents and possessions.
This life is the headwaters out of which life in heaven flows. Eternity will hold for us what we’ve poured into it during our lives here. When we view our short today in light of the long tomorrow of eternity, even the little choices we make become tremendously important.
Your life on earth is a dot. From that dot extends a line that goes on for all eternity. Right now you’re living in the dot. But what are you living for? Are you living for the dot or for the line? Are you living for earth or for heaven? Are you living for the short today or the long tomorrow?
In this great 4-minute video, Francis Chan uses another illustration, somewhat similar, that demonstrates just how short-sighted living only for this present life is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86dsfBbZfWs
This is a great reminder to invest in what will last, and to center your life around God, and His Word, and His promises and commands. Do this, and you will be living not for the dot but for the line (or in Chan’s case, the rope)!
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Colossians 3:2 — Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
II Corinthians 4:18 — So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
I John 2:17 — The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
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Almighty God, give us a measure of true religion and thereby set us free from vain and disappointing hopes, from lawless and excessive appetites, from frothy and empty joys, from anxious, self-devouring cares, from a dull and black melancholy, from an eating envy and swelling pride, and from rigid sourness and severity of spirit; all so that we may possess that peace which passeth all understanding, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
–Benjamin Whichcote (1609-1683), English philosopher