“Brothers, what we do in life… echoes in eternity.” Maximus the Gladiator spoke those words inspiring his men to run headlong into battle without regard for their own lives. Death was certainly awaiting many of them – they were sure of that. Yet, they fought for their families – their wives, their sons and daughters – their fellow citizens… their freedom.
I recently read a book by N.T. Wright called “Surprised by Hope.” There was a sentence in one of the latter chapters in the book that jumped off the page and smacked me square in the mouth (one of many that did so, actually). Wright says, “What you do in the present – by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself – will last into God’s future (eternity).” Most people think of ‘eternity’ as something that happens after you die. Whatever your beliefs on all that might be, you most likely think of eternity as what you’ll experience ‘after death.’ Tom (the ‘T’ in N.T.) reframes the thought on eternity saying, instead, that eternity has already begun. He believes (as do I) that, at the moment of Jesus’ resurrection, God’s Kingdom – His ‘government’ if you will – was inaugurated here on earth. In that moment the prayer, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done” began to be answered.
If we look at our earth-suit-dwelling years through this lens it begins to change how we function here and now. Suddenly the “little” everyday things aren’t so little; everything I do matters. God’s Kingdom is here (now) and it is also yet to come in its’ entirety (not yet). So what I do today to invest in that ‘now’ and ‘not yet’ government matters.
I’ve got tons of thoughts rolling around in my head about all this, so more to follow along this line later.
In the meantime, what are your thoughts? What is it you’re doing today that’s going to echo in the halls of eternity? I’m not saying I’ve got this all figured out or that I do a great job of it in my daily routine. Just trying to generate some thoughtful introspection and hopefully – out of that – action. God said these words through His prophet Micah and they’re great action words for us to frame our day around today: “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”
