As we were chatting, I glanced at the tip of one of my drumsticks. The tip is less than one-half inch, while the entire stick is more than 16 inches long. A drummer uses the entire drumstick, of course, but the tip is where the action is. This prompted me to think about the span of one’s life here on earth, compared to eternity.
The average American lives well beyond the age of 70, although we all know of people who passed away much younger. And there are many people living well into their 80’s, 90’s, and some past 100. That seems like a long time, but as a little girl once said, “Eternity – well, that’s like forever!” Yep, a very, very long time.
Which begs the question, if our time on earth is equivalent to the tip of a drumstick, while the entire drumstick (and beyond) represents eternity, why are we so focused on just the tip?
Skeptics might contend that this life is all there is, there’s nothing after we die. If that’s the case, we might do well to consider the somewhat pessimistic perspective of the author of Ecclesiastes, who wrote, “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 8:15). Eat, drink and be merry, ‘cause tomorrow you may die!
However, the same book’s writer also observed, “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In response to the plaintive question of the old song, “Is that all there is?”, the Bible teaches emphatically, “No, that’s not all there is.”
The Scriptures don’t sugarcoat the reality of life. As it says in James 4:14, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.” The New International translates the word as “mist.” Vapor or mist, neither is anything you can hang onto for long.
But rather than telling us to resign ourselves to a relatively short-lived existence, the Bible is filled with passages and promises that essentially tell us, “Quit concentrating on the tip of the drumstick and learn to value the entire stick.”
In what’s perhaps the best-known verse of Scripture, John 3:16, we’re told, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This isn’t referring to the fabled fountain of youth that Ponce de Leon searched for, but life that continues long after we take our last breath on planet Earth.
The apostle John expanded on this when he wrote, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:12-13).
Speaking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and Jewish leader, Jesus Christ referred to this when He said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).
On another occasion, Jesus assured His followers, “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Another translation terms it “abundant life.” Either way, He was not referencing hefty wallets and investment portfolios, shiny cars and grandiose houses, but life for all of eternity with our Heavenly Father.
Writing a final charge to his protégé, Timothy, the apostle Paul clearly understood there’s more to life than what he’d experienced on “terra firma.” With his sights set on what awaited him, Paul declared:
“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, for which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Even though in Romans 6:13 he wrote about our offering ourselves as “instruments of righteousness,” I don’t think he had drums or even drumsticks in mind. But he might have appreciated that metaphor for pondering this life and the life to come.
How about us? Is our concentration fixed totally on this particular moment, tomorrow or next month, or have we given thought to what is, as Paul phrased it, “in store” for us in eternity, beyond the “drum tip” of everyday life?
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