Maintaining an Eternal Perspective

I believe one of the big reasons we have such a tough time with evil and suffering is because we've lost (or have never had) an eternal perspective.

The apostle Paul suffered greatly throughout his life. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 11 that for choosing to follow Jesus the apostle Paul was flogged 5x (v.24), beaten with rods 3x (v.25), shipwrecked 3x (v.25), and one time he was even stoned with rocks and left for dead (v.25). He lived in danger constantly (from rivers, from bandits, from fellow Jews, from Gentiles and from false believers). He was in danger in the city, in the country, and even at sea. He often went without sleep, without food or water and without clothes. He slept many a night cold and naked (vv.26-27). But despite all this Paul maintained a positive outlook on life. 

He wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." How was he able to keep this positive perspective? By maintaining an eternal perspective!

If we, like Paul, would keep eternity in mind, it would help us deal with the hurt and pain we experience in this life. Let me illustrate it this way...

Suppose on the first day of this year, you had a terrible day. You woke up with a migraine headache. The pain was so bad that you were afraid you were going to die. Then it got so bad that you wanted to die. On the way to the doctor’s office, you were hit by an uninsured motorist, totaling your car. The car was a Christmas present, and it was the car you had always dreamed of owning. When you finally got to work, you found out your company was downsizing and that your name was at the top of the list. The whole day was like that - just terrible. But then pretend that the next day everything changed. The next day you wake up to a phone call from a competitor that you’ve secretly been wishing you could work for, and they offer you a better job than the one you had with twice the pay. Suppose the entire rest of the year turns out to be like day two? You inherit a large sum of money from an unknown relative. Your kids get straight A’s. Your marriage is perfect. You get voted “Person of the Year” by the local newspaper. You play golf with Phil Mickelson and you win! Pretend the rest of the year went like this. Now image it's December 31st and someone asks you, “So, how was your year?” “It was unbelievable!” you reply. “Really? How about that first day?” they ask “Oh yeah, that was a little rough, but everything else has gone so well, I had almost forgotten about it.” That’s what it will be like in heaven. 

How could Paul refer to his troubles as "light" when he suffered so heavily? His suffering is light compared to the weight of joy he will have in eternity. And the longer he’s in heaven, the more his entire life will appear to be but a moment. In talking about our suffering as being something “light”, Paul wasn’t being insensitive to the plight of those who suffer horribly in this life - on the contrary, he was one of them - but he saw that those sufferings were simply overwhelmed by the ocean of joy and glory that God will give to those who trust Him. 

I hope you see how important it is to maintain an eternal perspective as you think about evil and suffering in this world. Having an eternal perspective really does make all the difference.