Holy Procrastination (Part 4)

how my views for the future radically change my life today

Hi there!

I’ve been keeping a list in one of my journals titled “Holy Procrastination” where I jot down ways that my view of heaven can shape how I live now. It’s extremely freeing.

If you haven’t already, read parts One, Two, and Three on my series about eternity or else a lot of this won’t make sense to you. (Maybe it won’t make sense anyway 😅)

• Because I believe I’ll have an eternity of awesome food with flavors no one has ever even encountered yet, I can say “no” to cake and steak more often now because I know these 70ish years aren’t my last chance to feast. (And when I do indulge, I can enjoy it on a deeper level, knowing that it was invented and given by a God who enjoys good things.)

• Because I believe I’ll have an eternity to know people that I don’t get to spend enough time with now, I can say, “I can’t do life with every single awesome person I meet…but I can spend plenty of time with them someday.” This really comforts me when dear friends live in other cities or our seasons of life just don’t seem to match up.

• Because I believe I’ll have time to find all kinds of ways to glorify and enjoy God, I don’t have to learn everything or be everything now. I can learn violin or pottery or Swahili eventually. I don’t need to cram it all in with every Masterclass ad that pops up on my computer.

• Because I believe that I’m not still going to be a wife and mom in heaven, my role as wife and mom isn’t ultimate right now. It’s not everything about me. However, I do believe my husband and kids will be my friends and siblings in Christ, and we’re going to have relationships that aren’t messed up by all the things that are messed up while we’re all so broken. So I have a lot to look forward to. Our family doesn’t have to be perfect right now.

• Because I believe that I’ll get to travel the world (and probably even the galaxy) as much as I want, I have a small bucket list for this life and hold it very loosely. I don’t need to travel right now. I’ll say “heck yes” to any road trips I can do, of course, but I don’t need to travel. I don’t need vacation. I can focus on the adventure of loving God and loving people.

• Because I believe that all creation will become what it’s always meant to be, including animals, I can think about the positives and redemptive possibilities of animals I dislike! For example, mosquitos feel like such a waste, but they’re actually pollinators! Redeemed pests are going to be really cool—cockroaches, anyone? It’s fun to think about how they’ll be fully living their purpose and not just gross. Cats might be humble 😉 Also, I definitely plan on riding on cheetahs and also just gawking at animals that are currently predator/prey who will one day be all snuggly and trusting with each other.

• Because I believe that there are some things I won’t be able to do in Heaven—like sacrificing for others or telling people about Jesus who don’t know Him—I feel freed up to spend my energy on others right now. It’s a unique privilege.

• Because I believe that God is going to restore creation, I can trust that He cares about nature and I can work to make things better where I live. Trees that I plant in my backyard might still be around in the New Earth. How we care for the earth now matters.¹

• Because I believe that the places we know now will be made right someday, I can think about what I can do to bring heaven down to earth here in Chattanooga. Some things will be destroyed, but some things will last. So what will New Chattanooga be like? One day I’ll visit places where so much evil has happened—racial tension, abuse of children, pollution, injustice on every level—and see how God redeemed it all somehow. And I can be His hands and feet to get that redemption started right now.

• Because I believe my body will be totally redeemed someday, I don’t need to obsess over my image right now. This is very encouraging since I spent my 20’s being pregnant or nursing. I might’ve missed what’s culturally normal for “peak” beauty, but I can focus on inner beauty and just being healthy and trust that my body is going to be literally perfect before I know it 🤷🏻‍♀️

• Because I believe that we’ll all have childlike joy in heaven, I can embrace childlikeness now…choosing friends I can giggle wildly with, making art even if I’m bad at it, and reading stories that make me feel the way they did when I was 8.

• Because I believe that all cultures are going to be celebrated in heaven, I am currently skeptical when I see a place with a homogenous crowd because I know that heaven isn’t going to be like that. We’ll all live together perfectly. So I should probably open my heart and home to people who aren’t like me now.²

• Because I don’t believe it’s possible to truly “live my best life” while the world is still so broken—and while I’m still so broken!—I don’t need to spend all my money and energy on trying to make it my best life. I can be generous because I know this life isn’t my only chance for pleasure and comfort.

• Because I believe that we’ll all still work in heaven—with meaning and purpose, and without burden and frustration—I don’t need to reject work right now. It’s not a bad thing to work and I’ll be working forever. But I can take comfort that work won’t always be so hard.

• Because I believe that the main attraction of Heaven is going to be enjoying God Himself, I might as well start enjoying Him now! Jesus is everything to me and He’s what’s going to make Heaven so great. An eternity of fun would get old eventually³, but an eternity of knowing and enjoying the eternal God who loves me tenderly…I can see how that would actually manage to be a good thing literally forever.

Some of you might have thought that taking the time to study (and just daydream) about such a far-off idea as Heaven is like putting your head in the clouds and removing yourself as a valuable member of society, but I hope these thoughts pushed back on that concern. C.S. Lewis said it beautifully⁴: “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

See what I mean about holy procrastination? I can put some stuff off because I know better stuff is coming, and instead I can focus on blessing the world right now.

Oh, and believe it or not, I could keep going with how Heaven impacts the way we live now !

I hope this series has been helpful! It’s probably over for now unless you have questions 😆

Love,

Hope

P.S. My friend Aprile (Her God Speaks) just released an amazing Bible study about Heaven. I got to be on her podcast for her Heaven series and I’ll share those links when she publishes them! (…If you can bear to endure my wild giggling with friends.)

P.P.S. Here are some pictures from the past couple weeks!

Blowing Wind Falls, here in Chattanooga

I went to an awesome free Andrew Peterson concert at Covenant College, and as we left, the fog was straight out of a fairytale

my wild and sweet youngest daughter

I don’t know what this phenomenon is called but it’s so crazy cool

a roadside waterfall in Dunlap that I’m not able to just drive past everytime

gorgeous pines in Dunlap!

whispers of spring!

1. I highly recommend the book Becoming Whole by Brian Fikker. He talks about how our theology of Heaven deeply impacts how much we care about our neighbors, and how we care for them. We should be caring for peoples’ whole selves.

2. I do not do this well (yet.)

3. Season 4 of The Good Place addresses this. In the words of Jason, “Go-karting with monkeys got boring really fast.” (But the creators of the show didn’t seem able to come up with a good alternative to endless pleasure. I have different ideas.)

4. This is from Chapter 10 in Mere Christianity