What I Plan On Doing 10 Million Years From Now (Part 1)

let's begin with what I DON'T plan on doing

Hello! Most of us have a retirement dream, a 5-year-plan, or at least goals for the next year…but do we spend any of our imaginations on what we’ll be doing, like, 500 years from now? 50,000 years from now? 50,000,000,000?

In previous posts I’ve said that one day I’ll share how I think I’ll be spending my days in the far far future. Well, that day is today. And a part 2 next week. It sounds sci-fi, but my source for believing this stuff is from an ancient text that has been trusted by billions of people. Also, my daydreams about the afterlife actually change how I live today.

Most people don’t give much thought about what comes “after this”—cue existential crises—and Christians seem to be satisfied with some foggy idea of streets of gold and reunions with deceased family members, but really…what will Heaven be like? That used to be me, too, but if I plan on being somewhere for eternity, I had better be excited about it.

Hollywood’s Hellish Imaginings of Heaven

I’m very curious whenever Hollywood portrays heaven, and I jump on any shows or movies that are brave enough to envision what comes “after.”

In season 1 of The Good Place, “heaven” had awkward dinner parties and unlimited frozen yogurt.
The show Upload portrayed the afterlife as a virtual place where you transfer your consciousness after you die (if you can afford it.)
Then there was a show called Forever where the afterlife was portrayed kind of like retirement; Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph’s characters lived in a suburban house and could breathe underwater and had all the time in the world to do things like pottery…but it was all so depressingly empty.

The movie Inception depicts a place where Leo DiCaprio’s character and his wife had so much fun building whatever they wanted and having a limitless sandbox in their dreams, but it all became a nightmare eventually because…there was no end in sight, and nothing had meaning.

All of these media imaginations of the afterlife are hellish.

So on one hand, it’s amazing for my imagination to see a physical afterlife that has physical pleasures and involves creativity and community and eating. But the thing that intrigues me most about Hollywood’s portrayal of heaven—and why I bother to watch these shows that I don’t even necessarily recommend—is that an afterlife without God is not only purposeless and empty, but it’s not heaven at all. It’s lonely no matter who or what is there.

“Holy” (But Disappointing?) Imaginings of Heaven

What today’s Christians seem to assume about Heaven is the opposite…and it’s not a good thing. The assumption is that God only cares about spiritual things, so Heaven must be like one big worship service. Always. We’ll hug our relatives that went to Heaven before us, then we’ll get back to singing.

I love Jesus. I love singing to Jesus. But an eternity of that? If He’s “going to prepare a place for us,” a big golden arena in the clouds is the best He can do?

No, of course not, and we don’t have biblical reasons to have the view I just described. And if we think Jesus has no better plan for eternity than to have everyone sing to Him all day every day¹, we’ve missed so much of the heart of God. Jesus is worthy of all worship, but He isn't a narcissist.

Let yourself be shocked by this:

Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. -Luke 12:37

Say what? Not only will we actually relax and eat in Heaven, but Jesus is even going to be a waiter!?² I don’t even know, but it’s crazy that He said that.

Anyway, here’s where I’ll start: God made the world, and all the stuff in it, and it was good. He made people, and they were very good. He invented work, too, before sin entered the world and ruined everything. Work is cursed but it’s not a curse. Work is supposed to be a good thing. In fact, all physical things are supposed to be good things.

When we hold up spiritual things as all that matters, we stop caring about the physical needs of other people. We stop caring for our bodies because we just see all fleshly things as a sinful burden. We do all the fun stuff we can right now, in this life, because it’s our only chance. We look out for ourselves because life is short. This all starkly contradicts with the teachings of Jesus.

There’s another way. When you take the view that yes, this life is short, but our realest, truest life is long, and that the best things in this world are a foggy preview of what’s to come, it changes everything.

Stay tuned next week for more 😉

Love,

Hope

1. The Bible is clear that Jesus is sung to for eternity, and He deserves that! I love that God is so holy that magnificent creatures whose voices shake the earth (Isaiah 6) are singing praise to Him all the time. Like, wow. But that’s not the only occupation that anyone can ever have in Heaven.

2. I also love the story when Jesus made breakfast for His disciples in John 21. That was in His resurrected body. Our resurrected bodies are going to eat food, too.