A Spring of Joy

C.S. Lewis wrote: “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. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on Earth because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”

There is a pervasive heaviness over my heart. It seems as though grief after grief continues to strike the lives of dear ones. I wade through the pain of friends. I watch my own family suffer. I walk through my physical limitations and depression. I see the emptiness of this world, the way it grabs hold of my heart and tempts me to forget what it’s all really about.

It is so easy to become focused on this world, the muck and the mire of fallenness. It is easy to set my mind here rather than what is above. It is easy to forget what it’s really all about. It is easy to be tempted to live as if this is all there really is. It is easy to lose the eternal perspective.

This is not my home. I long to shake off the hold it has on me and forge forward with my eyes on Christ’s redeeming blood.

I am a stranger here. I am a citizen of Heaven. I am dead to the world and alive in Christ. Set apart. Redeemed. Bought.

This is my glory. I am hid in the Savior and I can endure the hardship of this world… the muck and the pain and the sin and the sadness because I have the hope that comes from being redeemed. He will soon call me home.

This is how I can raise my thankful voice in the midst of suffering. Because suffering shows truth. This world is not my home.

I love the hymn, Dearly We’re Bought, because it shows exactly this. The beautiful contrast between the emptiness of the world and the glory of redemption.

I want to live letting go of this world.

I want to live in the world as one redeemed, set apart, because if I live life focused on the life to come, as C. S. Lewis said, I will make the biggest impact on life here.

Eternal perspective. Not just perspective. Mindset. “Set your mind on things above.” The Apostle Paul said it. I long to live it.

Even in grief. I can live with hope.

It shall not always be so. It will all fade away.

And the glory of it all is that I am DEARLY bought and redeemed.

“Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

Come raise your thankful voice, you souls redeemed with blood,
Leave earth and all its toys and mix no more with mud.
Dearly we’re bought, highly esteemed,
Redeemed, with Jesus blood redeemed.

With heart and soul and mind, exalt redeeming love,
Leave worldly cares behind and set your minds above.
Dearly we’re bought, highly esteemed,
Redeemed, with Jesus blood redeemed.

Lift up your ravished eyes, and view the glory given,
All lower things despised, ye citizens of heaven.
Dearly we’re bought, highly esteemed,
Redeemed, with Jesus blood redeemed.

Be to this world as dead, alive to that to come.
Our life in Christ is hid, who soon shall call us home.
Dearly we’re bought, highly esteemed,
Redeemed, with Jesus blood redeemed.
(Joseph Hart, 1712-1768)