The Eternal Mind

One of the risks of an eternal mindset is that we check out on this life.  As Christians we can be guilty of adopting an “us – versus – them” mentality, reminding ourselves that this world is not ours and that we are citizens of another land. These ideas are true.  But the point is not that our circumstances don’t matter in some nihilistic homage to ascetic fatalism.  The point isn’t that we can simply inform people that “God has a wonderful plan for their lives” so they shouldn’t worry about how rotten their circumstances are.  That is not biblical eternal thinking. 

Eternal thinking is realizing that our circumstances matter to God, but they matter in the context of eternity.  It is realizing that this life and how we physically and emotionally experience it is not all there is.  When we invest ourselves in the world, we should always remember that our investment must have an opportunity for eternal consequence in addition to its worthwhile temporal impact.