Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Citizenship

Philippians 3

I'd like to think that Paul is expounding here upon Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6:18-20 about "storing treasures in heaven". Echoing Jesus, Paul states in Philippians 3:1-8 that the things of this world ("the flesh") are ultimately rubbish, and he goes on in 3:9-21 to detail what is the true treasure we should be keeping our eye upon.
It's amazing how many things that I surround myself with every day are really the "rubbish" that Paul talks about. Computers, movies, internet, TV, really anything physical in this world will ultimately see destruction and eradication. Nothing is forever, except that which God sustains.

I'm reading a really great book called The World Without Us, wherein the author outlines what would happen if today -- for some reason -- all of the humans in this world were taken away to leave the planet to fend for itself. It's shocking how quickly all of what we consider permanent fixtures in our lives -- our houses, the cities, marks of civilization -- would fall into dust and be reclaimed by nature without our constant upkeep. Paul is expressing the same foresight, that we spend so much of our lives pouring our efforts into things that have an expiration date on them.

Yet while our earthly efforts and frail flesh will ultimately decay, this passage encourages us to "press on toward the goal to win the prize" -- citizenship in God's heaven. Our lives don't begin, not really, until we've reached that goal and are able to start experiencing true life in a way that we can only imagine right now.

In other words, if my life was a book, I think what years I spend on this planet would be a one-page prologue in front of a multi-multi-volume set that comes after.

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