Revelations, Perfections, and Ironies

The stars have aligned, and a few hours of time have been granted to me. I finished my 600 page Francine Rivers novel. (Her newest - a two book series. Read it.) I only have a moderately large pile of laundry on the basement floor, and have actually put away all of the clean clothes. It's Sunday afternoon, and since I actually spent more than 8 hours last night actually sleeping - I don't feel the need to sleep away the afternoon as is my custom of late.

The result? A thought out blog entry of sufficient depth that a great discussion is anticipated.

We're studying Revelation in church. Maybe it's my imagination, but I feel like our worship has been upgraded to the next level ever since we began. Today our choir, although we were still struggling with it this past Wednesday, pulled off the Hallelujah chorus. And it reminded me, our highest praise during this life will not compare with the worship we'll be about for eternity if we know Christ.

Which led me to my next pondering. Heaven. We discussed life after death this morning in Sunday School.

Because I know you tricky blog readers, I will begin with the facts. The Bible says much about Heaven, but the basics are this - Heaven is where God is, eternity will be spent on a brand new and perfect version of earth, and the followers of Jesus will spend eternity in brand new and perfect bodies. See 1 Thessalonians 4, Hebrews 8, Hebrews 11:16, 2 Peter 3, and parts of Revelation.

Some of us might be tempted to let the descriptions of heaven go in one ear and out the other, especially if we've been taught them since we were children. But have you ever truly just pondered the amazing future in store for us that know him?

Now we jump into my speculations and wanderings. I think God knew what he was doing when he didn't give us too much detail about our forever home. Even with the limited facts he's given us, we tend to picture heaven as a blah-fest. Standing around in white robes in a huge white room and chanting like cloistered monks while God sits on his throne and looks harsh.

Or was I the only one that got that impression from the way I heard people speak of it? That could be.

But when you force yourself to look past the vague description and the traditional versions of the truth, you realize that heaven is the perfect version of that vision and infinity times more. Now, as far as I know, it is an accepted fact that we use precious little of the brains we've been given. Have you ever wondered why? My theory, based on my own fallible logic, is that the parts we don't have access to are going to be activated when we get into eternity. We're going to be completely human, completely amazing inventions of God that are capable of everything that even the wisest, most intelligent person who ever lived couldn't even imagine.

Let's bring it home. What's your strength? What's the thing that drives you, the thing that makes you get up in the morning, the thing that delights and inspires and motivates you to live to a higher version of yourself? I'll give you my example, so you can think about what yours is, because it's tempting to say that there are too many to choose one. (At first thought, I might say, well, I love to write. I love music. I love to sing. I love to be a mom. I love to teach my kids.) But if I'm really going to boil me down to one core trait, I'd have to say that the one thing that makes me who I am and upon which all my other loves rests is simply my imagination.

Now, my imagination has also gotten me in trouble on plenty of occasions. There were the things I totally missed out on because I was daydreaming, there are the very real fears I had as a child because of the things I could imagine. Especially in the dark, old, creaky and possibly haunted church next door where my completely unimaginative mother made me go and practice piano by myself and probably scared 10 or 15 years off my life at the same time...

My sisters know what I'm talking about.

But all in all, my imagination fuels my deepest loves and my highest goals. And it's my suspicion that it will be my imagination that will drive me through eternity. I believe that when this temporary life is over, I will still be creating music, creating art, creating something that will be my eternal act of worship to my Creator.

I have other theories about eternity. I think we'll have "superpowers." I think we'll still be in the process, always, of learning new things, only we will not be hindered by laziness, weakness, short attention spans... you name it. Life will still be exciting, amazing, rewarding, and delightful. In fact, we probably haven't experienced the tiniest speck of what those words mean as of this moment. I think the irony of all that we try to come up with is that God is so big, so immense, so timeless and powerful and wise that it's going to to take forever to figure him out.

And we'll revel in every moment spent in the endeavor.

So what is your strength? I want to hear some of your boiled down and generalized descriptions of the driving forces that motivate you. There's no wrong answer. We've all been given special gifts by our Creator. The trick is finding them and putting them in the right spot in the puzzle of time and space that God is creating.

And if I'm really going to be honest, though this blog is based on the idea that we can make this life better by growing and learning, and I'm a believer in changed lives... we're trying to do things that aren't going to work until this imperfect, broken world is replaced by the new model. So I guess I can relax a little, even if I don't write every day and even if no one agrees with what I say or even cares or reads. Because my eternal blog will be AWESOME.

Let me know what you think your "driving motivation" looks like. One word descriptions are fine, for those of you who are thinking you won't reply just because you can't think of the right way to explain it.

And if this sparks any other thoughts about heaven you might have, let's have it.

(Oh, and if you aren't sure your ticket for heaven is sealed, and you can't believe I am so sure mine is, please know that your fare was already paid by Jesus, and all that is required of you is to admit you can't pay for it yourself and reach out and take it from him. End of story. If you doubt me, say so, and I'll come up with some verses to prove it.)