Austin's Blog

Since Gabriel went to Heaven, we have discovered a sobriety to life. There is a sense in which the things we used to enjoy don’t carry the same weight they once did. The death of a child has a way of prioritizing or even relativizing all other things. Ties to this world are loosened, there’s very little desire for levity and frivolousness, and all earthly pleasures are revealed as fleeting and fading. I think this is God’s work, revealing that this world is not currently our home and the momentary joys of it point beyond themselves to something and Someone greater.

Peter Toon writes, “The most tragic strain in human existence lies in the fact that the pleasure which we find in the things of this life, however good that pleasure may be in itself, is always taken away from us. The things for which men strive hardly ever turn out to be as satisfying as they expected, and in the rare cases in which they do, sooner or later they are snatched away. . . . For the Christian, all those partial, broken and fleeting perfections which he glimpses in the world around him, which wither in his grasp and are snatched away from him even while they wither, are found again, perfect, complete and lasting in the absolute beauty of God.” Our earthly joys vanish but there’s solid joys that last forever coming in the Lord.

The resurrection then becomes all the more beautiful. We lose so much on this side of that eternal eclipse of death and yet God promises all that is holy, good, beautiful, and true will be given back in the end. For those who feel like their life didn’t pan out the way they had hoped, dreamed, or planned, this is an immense encouragement.

Dallas Willard notes in The Divine Conspiracy that, “I meet many faithful Christians who, in spite of their faith, are deeply disappointed in how their lives have turned out. Sometimes it is simply a matter of how they are experiencing aging, which they take to mean they no longer have a future. But often, because of circumstances or wrongful decisions and actions by others, what they had hoped to accomplish in life they did not. They painfully puzzle over what they may have done wrong, or over whether God has really been with them. Much of the distress of these good people comes from a failure to realize that their life lies before them. That they are coming to the end of their present life, life ‘in the flesh’, is of little significance. What is of significance is the kind of person they have become. Circumstances and other people are not in control of an individual’s character or of the life that lies endlessly before us in the kingdom of God.” There’s a life after the life we live now—a land that is after our dying where there are no more goodbyes.

Randy Alcorn encourages us that “When you experience disappointment and loss as you faithfully serve God here, remember: the loss is temporary. The gains will be eternal. Every day on the New Earth will be a new opportunity to live out the dreams that matter most…Our God won’t just take away suffering; He’ll compensate by giving us greater delights than if there had been no suffering. He doesn’t just wipe away tears; He replaces those tears with corresponding joys.” What does this mean? The losses won’t last forever. Resurrection is about restoration of all that has found its way into God’s Kingdom. Those difficulties and hardships have been molding us into a particular kind of person and fitting us for what is best. The best is yet to come.