The reality of eternity infuses the here and now with seriousness and hope. The way you live is important because there is an eternity to follow. The choices you make are important because there is a forever. The things you believe are important because the world is moving toward eternity. The things you surrender your heart to are important because there is an eternal tomorrow.

It is tempting to forget that there is an eternity or to think that it doesn't make any difference in the present. Paul says just the opposite to the Corinthians; that if you only have Christ in this life, you are a person to be pitied. Eternity is the only thing that can give you a reason to continue.

It is sad how many people constantly live in the schizophrenic craziness of eternity amnesia. We were created to live in a forever relationship with a forever God forever. We were designed to live based on a long view of life. We were made to live with one eye on now and one eye on eternity. You and I simply cannot live as we were put together to live without forever.

And Scripture is clear—this is not paradise, and it won't be. Rather, this moment is a time of preparation for the paradise that is to come, where everything that sin has broken will be fully restored to what God originally intended it to be.

Here's the real-life, street-level issue: if you don't keep the eyes of your heart focused on the paradise that is to come, you will try to turn this poor fallen world into the paradise it will never be.

I have talked with many pastors whose real struggle isn't first with the hardship of ministry, the lack of appreciation and involvement of people, or difficulties with fellow leaders. No, the real struggle they are having, one that is very hard for a pastor to admit, is with God. What has caused ministry to become hard and burdensome is disappointment and anger with God.

You never have to feel or act as if you're alone in your suffering, because the One who sits on the throne at the right hand of the Father not only faced all the things that you now face, but he also faced the myriad of temptations that you and every other sufferer faces.

You have only two choices: an "on earth" way of thinking that is all about this right here, right now physical moment, or an "above" way of thinking that looks at life from the vantage point of the grand redemptive story and, more specifically, from the perspective of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

suffering is not an unusual, surprising experience; it's the experience of everyone who lives in this dramatically broken world.

The crisis of faith that often accompanies suffering is the result of a collision between our will and God's will and our glory and his glory.

God's grace invites you to be part of something that is far greater than your boldest and most expansive dream. His grace cuts a hole in your self-built prison and invites you to step into something so huge, so significant that only one word in the Bible can adequately capture it. That word is glory.

If eternity is the plan, then it makes no sense to shrink your living down to the needs and wants of this little moment.