We need a new perspective on death.
Most of us, reasonably so I suppose, view death as the end.
The end of life, the end of all things good. The end of all things we love.
Heaven is nothing more than the rest of everything; the reward for enjoying all of the good stuff here and now.
But is that right?
I think evangelicalism has done a disservice to everyone in leading people to believe that heaven is the reward for now. It’s not. Heaven is the real beginning to life as God sees it.
We dread, even fear death. We view it as some tragic end to the good stuff of life. But from God’s perspective, its not the end, its merely the beginning to all that God has planned all along.
The gift of life that we have is nothing more than an opportunity to get to find and know God. Once we do, we have an obligation to help others come to know and find God.
All death is is a transition to knowing God fully, and spending an eternity experiencing the life that He has planned for us all along.
There’s nothing wrong with dreading death or even prolonging our lives. But let’s not look at death as the end of something great and heaven as settling for something “ok.” Death for the believer is the beginning of what’s truly great. It’s a step across the threshold of what God intended from the beginning.