What to Do with Eternity in Our Hearts

I’m old enough to remember the haunting tune sung by Peggy Lee, “Is That All There Is?” Numerous times over the years I’ve heard successful businessmen refer to it in describing their climbs up the corporate ladder and discovering how unfulfilling that had been for them.

 

But we don’t have to be in the business or professional world to occasionally have similar thoughts. We get married, filled with dreams of happily ever after and then, when the honeymoon glow has long faded, we might begin to wonder, “Is that all there is?” Sooner or later, idyllic imaginings about the joys of parenthood are similarly dashed when we suddenly realize that our children aren’t perfect – and as parents, neither are we. “Is that all there is?”

 

I’m sure there are many athletes and actors, once their aspirations for fame and fortune have been fully realized, have reached the “Is that all there is?” stage. Reports of alcoholism, drug abuse, divorce and suicide give us clues that the so-called “good life” isn’t necessarily as good as it’s hyped up to be.

 

The question takes on even more profound meaning when we start to recognize the brevity of life. In our younger days, we seem convinced we’ll live forever. That’s why many young people take an approach to life that’s both carefree and careless. Feelings of invincibility can do that. But then we start to see lives of loved ones and friends coming to an end. “Forever” has an expiration date.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The timeless, eternal God, who has no beginning and no end, desires for our grip on this life to be a loose one. In the Scriptures we read, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

 

It says the Lord has “set eternity in our hearts,” a deep-down sense that as we appraise our existence on earth and wonder, “Is that all there is?” we have the assurance that no, it’s not. There’s more to come.

 

Years ago, I interacted quite a bit with a hardened atheist – unsuccessfully, I must admit. In his words, after this life has reached its inevitable conclusion, “all we are is dust in the wind.” A refrain from a different song – sung by Kansas, not Peggy Lee.

 

The skeptic I talked with certainly wasn’t the only person to hold those sentiments. But even a child knows, “Eternity is a REALLY long time,” making our temporal lives less than a blip on the screen. This being the case, even the most productive life doesn’t amount to much. That is, unless there’s indeed hope for life beyond the one we’ve come to know and love.

 

Earthly life and eternal life. These make up a recurring theme in both the Old and New Testaments. They’re such pressing concerns that in his first letter, John the apostle wrote these encouraging words to believers in the first century: 

“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 does not have life.” Then John added the clincher: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God [Jesus Christ] so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13).

 

How important is it that we can know for certain that we have eternal life? If you’ve ever walked past or driven by a cemetery, it’s a solemn reminder that as Ecclesiastes 3:2 states it, there’s “a time to be born and a time to die.” Is that all there is, living out whatever time we’re allotted and then coming to an absolute dead end, whether it be a grave, tomb, mausoleum or crematorium? 

 

There’s not much that can top the hope and confidence that for those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, when we draw our final earthly breath then, to quote yet another popular song, “We’ve only just begun to live.” (Thank you, Karen Carpenter, for that lovely thought.)

 

But what can knowledge that we have eternal life do for us, other than assure that our existence won’t dissipate like steam coming out of a teapot? It can give us meaning and a sense of purpose, far beyond our strivings for a promotion and pay raise at work, a better golf score, or any of the many other things – tangible and intangible – that tend to occupy our time and attention. Because all of those will be forgotten eventually, perhaps sooner than we think.

 

During His “sermon on the mount,” Jesus gave a description of the impact having eternity in our hearts can make: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).

We’ve often heard it said, “You can’t take it with you,” but as Jesus promised, we can send it on ahead.