S89P8 – The good death: attachment to this life

2 Cor. 5:6-8

So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

He had lived in that house for decades, and that neighborhood truly had become his home.  As time went on things began to change there, and people started living in much different and better ways.  His way of life in that house in that place started to show its reality, which was a subpar way of life compared to the new possibilities being discovered daily.  One by one his neighbors started leaving that neighborhood for the better life in new communities, but he stayed.  He felt a comfort and a belonging there, and he just could not imagine life any other way.  He would remain in that house until he was the last one there, limited by a shadow of a life to which he insisted on clinging. 

There are many people who know only about the physical life and are oblivious to the spiritual one.  They think the things we see and feel are all there is.  They see our existence as a short life here followed by death and then nothingness.  Perhaps they can be forgiven for clinging to their time here because they know no better and think this is the only life available.  Those who know Christ, however, cannot be extended that grace.  We know better because we have been taught of the eternal life that awaits us.  If we are to cling to a life, let it be that one.  The passing of this one is a glory because it takes us there, to the light beyond the shadow.  If we fear the end of this life and all it holds, that feeling must be put to death. 

I have had so many conversations about what it will be like to move on from here.  One thing that really sticks out to me is the idea that this life will be such a vapor and so incomplete compared to eternal perfection that we will not miss this once we arrive there.  I cannot imagine standing in the presence of the Lord and thinking about the things of this world which will be no more.  We will not brood over not having the favorites and comforts we think we cannot live without.  We would be fools to dwell on temporary imperfection when faced with eternal wholeness.  Father, give us the right perspective on this life so that we can remain unattached to it and look forward to the perfection to come.