I heard Jesus was coming today, I hope _______!

I want to go to heaven, I really do!!!!  It will be amazing and I will experience several things that I cannot even conceive in my mind.  Here is a short list I am excited about.

When I get to heaven…

• I will see Jesus!  I get choked up even writing this.  I want to see my Savior face to face.
• I will see my Heavenly Father!  Wow!  To see the one whose love sacrificed His own Son on my behalf.
• I will live in perfect harmony with God the Holy Spirit!  No more zigging when He is zagging.
• I will be freed permanently from the ripple effect of all sin, especially mine.
• Some of my questions will be answered and even more of my questions won’t matter.
• I will get the new body.  I have put a lot of miles on this one.
• All my tears will be wiped away and HE will make all things new.
• I will see all my heroes.  I will meet guys like Noah, Moses, Elijah, Gideon, David and of course Peter and the rest of the apostles.  I will see my grandfather again and my father in law and other people who have gone before.
• I will never experience crummy things like worry, stress, financial woes, car problems, flashes of temper, bad thoughts hijacking my mind, caving to temptation, that ache in my knee, a migraine because I did not sleep enough…

BUT – there is always a but.

I grew up in a church that taught Jesus could come back at any moment and we needed to be ready.  But I had a lot of things I still wanted to do before Jesus interrupted my life with bliss.  I wanted to travel, I wanted to be in love, I wanted to have kids, I wanted to be a grownup…  This was the perspective of my youth.  Yes I wanted to go to heaven, just not yet.

My church was filled with wonderful older Christians.  Some of these amazing people were in their 70’s, 80’s and beyond.  They spoke of heaven differently.  They wanted to go because they felt that the end of their journey was near.  These people longed for heaven in a way I did not.

There were the troubled people in our church.  These were the folks for whom heaven was a get out of jail free card.  The thought was, “I got a giant mess, life is hard, my kids are a mess, my marriage is a mess, my finances are a mess, I got court problems coming my way, I cannot imagine struggling with sobriety for another 20 years, I don’t like working, I have such deep wounds, I have created such deep wounds…  IT SURE WOULD BE NICE IF JESUS CAME SO I DID NOT HAVE TO DO THIS STUFF ANYMORE!

After almost 30 years in ministry this thinking has not changed much.  Younger people still want to get more life lived, older folks are seeing the finish line and there is still a group of people who, depending on how hard life is, determines how much they want Jesus to come and get them.

Here is my crazy thought.  I really want Jesus to come and get me… BUT not yet and here is why.  There are over 6 billion people in this world.  Of those only 1 billion or so know Christ.  There are almost 2.5-3 billion people who have never even heard of Jesus.  There are another 2+ billion locked in religions that lead to a Christless eternity.  Frankly, there are literally billions of people who do not know how much God loves them.  There is a lot of work to do.

Here is how I see it.  I am going to get all that I described above and more.  Guaranteed by the ONE who gave His life for all.  He sealed the deal!  It is not a maybe, not an if only, it is FOR SURE!  I don’t want Jesus to come get me yet because there are over 5 billion people who still need him.  For me to want out of here just because I got my golden ticket when I would be leaving behind so many who have not even heard…  I think this heart might not be the same as God’s heart.

Is Jesus coming back today?  I hope not.  Not because I do not want to see him but rather because there are far too many people who still need to hear about Him.  Off… we go now.

~ by OFF we go now on May 21, 2011.