He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity
in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning
to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
I believe it was Saint Clint of Eastwood who said, “A man’s got to know
his limitations.”1 Though some religious scholars may debate his
overall world view, few can dispute insight of such profundity.
Nowhere are our limitations so clear as when we contemplate the infinite with our finite minds. Our “advanced understanding” of the natural world around us should have disabused us from any notion of God by now, yet we cannot escape the inner awareness of His being. Instead, we consider the magnificence of all creation, and our soul silently testifies what our minds may not care to admit, “Surely, there is more, something even greater than this.” So we crane our necks to peer into the unseen, only to be blinded by the glare of our physical boundaries.
God has set into our hearts a silent awareness of an eternity we cannot comprehend, so how do we face an uncertain future that certainly awaits us? One way is to take the word of the One who’s been there. “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man,” said Jesus. We can trust what He says about eternity, for His credentials are impeccable, not only by His own word, but also by the prophets who proclaimed Him over hundreds and thousands of years before His coming. He is the promised Ruler “from ancient times” (Micah 5:2); we can rely on His promises of what is yet to come.
Yet many of us reject the testimony of Him who speaks with authority—the One who has been where we hope to go—convincing ourselves, instead, that eternity is what we feel it must be. Then we affirm everyone else’s fancies, even though they contradict our own. Everyone is right; no one is wrong, except perhaps the One with the exclusive truth claim: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
"Feeling" would be fine if we were playing parlor games, but we’re not. We are talking about eternity, and the decisions we make now have ultimate consequences. The informed choice is to entrust ourselves to the sure and certain promises of the One who came from a reality none of us has seen, but to which all of us are going. Alternatively, we can go with our gut, but before we base forever-decisions on what we feel, we do well to ponder once more the insight of Saint Clint: “You’ve gotta ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya . . . ?” 2
1 Daily, R. & Post, T. (1973). Magnum Force. US: Warner Bros.
2 Siegel, D. & Daily, R. (1971). Dirty Harry. US: Warner Bros.
[Read the Scripture for the day in Ecclesiastes 3:9-22.]
Nowhere are our limitations so clear as when we contemplate the infinite with our finite minds. Our “advanced understanding” of the natural world around us should have disabused us from any notion of God by now, yet we cannot escape the inner awareness of His being. Instead, we consider the magnificence of all creation, and our soul silently testifies what our minds may not care to admit, “Surely, there is more, something even greater than this.” So we crane our necks to peer into the unseen, only to be blinded by the glare of our physical boundaries.
God has set into our hearts a silent awareness of an eternity we cannot comprehend, so how do we face an uncertain future that certainly awaits us? One way is to take the word of the One who’s been there. “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man,” said Jesus. We can trust what He says about eternity, for His credentials are impeccable, not only by His own word, but also by the prophets who proclaimed Him over hundreds and thousands of years before His coming. He is the promised Ruler “from ancient times” (Micah 5:2); we can rely on His promises of what is yet to come.
Yet many of us reject the testimony of Him who speaks with authority—the One who has been where we hope to go—convincing ourselves, instead, that eternity is what we feel it must be. Then we affirm everyone else’s fancies, even though they contradict our own. Everyone is right; no one is wrong, except perhaps the One with the exclusive truth claim: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
"Feeling" would be fine if we were playing parlor games, but we’re not. We are talking about eternity, and the decisions we make now have ultimate consequences. The informed choice is to entrust ourselves to the sure and certain promises of the One who came from a reality none of us has seen, but to which all of us are going. Alternatively, we can go with our gut, but before we base forever-decisions on what we feel, we do well to ponder once more the insight of Saint Clint: “You’ve gotta ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya . . . ?” 2
1 Daily, R. & Post, T. (1973). Magnum Force. US: Warner Bros.
2 Siegel, D. & Daily, R. (1971). Dirty Harry. US: Warner Bros.
[Read the Scripture for the day in Ecclesiastes 3:9-22.]
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