Monuments (May 7, 2009)

Man universally has a desire to be significant, to leave a legacy, to make monuments.  I see this in myself, and in others; a drive to do something enduring, to make a mark on the world, to make my life count for something bigger than life itself.   Is this a God given desire, or a result of pride due to the Fall?  Or has the Fall distorted what God created? 

I suspect that God has implanted into us, maybe as part of his image, the desire to do something of significance.  There is a satisfaction we derive from a job well done, a new thing created, or something restored or improved upon.  Pride certainly can take this and cause self elevation, rather than a healthy sense of contributing to community, of being a member of a body or organization where its members working together are productive.

 

As we think of judgment, and of the eternal state, what if (as suggested by Neo in A New Kind of Christian) judgment was the erasing of everything sinful, evil, wrong in our lives, these things being forgotten by God, and separated from us, as far as the east is from the west, leaving us only with the things that are good, right, pure, loving, etc. that we did in our life.  These things are the gold, silver and precious stones with which we enter eternity, stored up in heaven for us to rely upon when the earth is restored and united with heaven.  Our worthless thoughts and deeds, the wood hay and stubble, will be eliminated, as if by fire.  We will stand before God with our legacy, our monuments, our significant accomplishments.  These will be the things we carry with us into the eternal state.

 

During my younger years, my evangelical background taught me that the only thing we could take into eternity with us is people, those we helped “save” from hell, by contributing somehow to their salvation experince.

 

 

Ps 85:7-86:1

7 Show us your unfailing love, O LORD,

and grant us your salvation. 

 

8 I will listen to what God the LORD will say;

he promises peace to his people, his saints — 

but let them not return to folly. 

9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,

that his glory may dwell in our land. 

 

10 Love and faithfulness meet together;

righteousness and peace kiss each other. 

11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,

and righteousness looks down from heaven. 

12 The LORD will indeed give what is good,

and our land will yield its harvest. 

13 Righteousness goes before him

and prepares the way for his steps. 

 

NIV