Burnt Cookies and Hope Part 2

If you missed part 1, please get caught up here.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Made for another world indeed. We were handcrafted by God himself not for this life but for the coming Life in heaven. And this is the only Life we can put our hope in.  We will lose heart and give up if we don’t. Negativity and sorrow will overwhelmingly crush our souls if we do not hope in the Life to come.  The biggest question is, what will this Life in heaven be like?

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) Paul is simply saying to us that the end of our personal journeys will be incredible, and beyond our wildest dreams come true. As Eldredge dares us, “we cannot out dream God.”

Heaven is Life, and Life in abundance. It is not just a quantity of Life, but a certain glorious quality of Life. Our diseases will be healed, our sin erased, death will be no more. All of our tears will be wiped away, and there will be no pain. We will experience uninterrupted communion with Jesus. Our wildest dreams will come true. All of the longings and desires of our hearts will be fulfilled. We will be reunited with our family and closest friends. 

John Eldredge notes the comedy of the old saying, “He’s just not himself today.” He points out that the phrase is ironic because it’s true. No one is really quite themselves today. There is more to us than we have seen. Our true selves, our true creation will at times unexpectedly be revealed. 

“Life for the most parts keeps our glory hidden, cloaked by sin, sorrow, or merely weariness. When I see an older woman doubled over with arthritis, the hard years etched into her face, I want to cry, Eve what happened? How truly wonderful it will be to see her in her youth again, the full flower of her beauty restored.” (The Journey of Desire) 

We will finally, be the marvelous men and women God designed us to be. The full flower of our beauty and the full weight of our glory will be restored, and never again taken from us. Our youthful strength will not slip from us. Our greatest moments of joy and life on this side of eternity are only tiny glimpses of what we will experience when we finally go Home. Our experiences of love and intimacy in this life are only small sips of the Living Water from which we shall drink deeply in heaven.  Let hope begin to arise within you for this coming Life.

So now I find myself trying to out dream God in regards to heaven. I know that Jesus himself is in heaven now, preparing my place, my paradise in heaven. (John 14:2) He is doing the same or you, even as you read this post. Jesus knows us intimately, knows our every quirk and rhythm of our heart, knows us even better than we know ourselves. He knows our every dream and desire and thus he knows what we want concerning our place in heaven. Imagine the things he has up his sleeve! When I think about my place in heaven, I can see Jesus. He is rugged and strong, and more importantly, he is ecstatic to welcome me home. He has prepared a homecoming banquet and all of my family and friends are there. Grandpa Bob has teeth now, and he is young and mighty once again. My grandpa Schottel is not depressed but rather, very free and young as well. My parents are truly alive and joyous. Sadie (whenever it is she arrives Home) is whooping her contagious and life giving laugh hysterically. She too is young and beautiful completely restored in body spirit and soul. My best friends and I share a victory beer with Jesus (Imagine the stuff that guy can brew) as we recount the joyous times and triumphs we have shared. Jesus reveals his perfect work and plan throughout our first lives. He shows us just how very close he was to us, and we finally experience the full weight of his love. I have a house handcrafted by Jesus himself (the guy was a carpenter after all. What do you think he’s doing in heaven? Sitting in eternal glory with his nose held so high he can’t hear your prayers no less answer them? Doesn't sound much like the Jesus I read about when I open the gospels.) And the house is magnificent. It sits on a large piece of beautiful countryside. There are streams and ponds littering the property. I go fishing with Jesus. We bow hunt together. I play a little football with my best friends and family. Jesus joins the festivities as well. And obviously, Samantha is there. She is radiant and shining, smiling with her own full glory for the first time. She and I are excited because we finally get to truly live, happily ever after. Death and sin can no longer rob us of our love. Oh and I almost forgot. My knees are completely restored as is the rest of my body. No more patella tendinitis.  No more of me doing high knees/butt kicks and calling it running. I am, for the first time, truly running. In my place, I am running wild, young, and free.

As Lecrae so cleverly said:  My hope is not a verb, My hope is found in a noun. 

What is your place like? What are you putting your hope in?

Burnt Cookies and Hope Part 1

I’ll save you the pity party of personal details and jump right into it. The past week and a half or so has been rough. Lots of emotional turmoil. My heart was heavy and burdened. Though I didn't know it at the time, you could sum up the state of my heart in one word: Disappointed. I had become very negative, and lost heart.  

And as you know, when it rains, it surely pours.

So then we burnt the cookies. Samantha was visiting for the game and had been excited to make some homemade desserts. Of the desserts she planned on making, were your basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  You know the rest of the story. 20 some minutes later we pulled out a batch of charred hockey pucks that were definitely not cookies. Samantha was flustered. I tried to console her and she dejectedly replied something to the effect of, “It’s fine. It’s always something and it gets old.” She promptly retreated to the deck with that comment and I promptly cried. This was about much more than the burnt cookies of the morning. This was about my un-grieved pain and frustration I have held inside the past 4 and a half years.  So I finally gave in to God and cried. And God was there. I dare say, God even orchestrated the week’s events to heal a broken part of me. A part of me that I had long been withholding from him.

And this Monday, God showed his face. God showed me exactly what it was he wanted to heal inside me so badly.

I woke up early and trained a client at 6 am. We were done by 7, and as I walked out of FKS I was overwhelmed with a sunrise that was breathtaking. Orange, yellows, reds, and purples like an artist just went to town on his canvas. Clouds scattered with the precision of a painter with undying passion for his work. My heart was immediately encouraged and uplifted in 10 seconds of beauty. It was a painting of hope, reminding me that one day, the Life I so desperately long for will indeed come.

I hopped into my car and turned on the local country station to find myself listening to Dierks Bentleys new single ‘I Hold On’. It is a song about a lot of different things, but it spoke to me this particular morning about hope. And I knew what God was after in my heart. He was after my hope.

“…set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” - 1 Peter 1:13

Aka set your hope fully on the coming Kingdom of Heaven.

Samantha sent me an email earlier last week in the midst of my disappointments. She wrote “I can’t wait until one day God heals your body and I get to see you running free in heaven.” At the time I was ecstatic. My heart was encouraged. But that’s where it ended. My perspective was not adjusted at all because my hope was still in this life, here and now.

The past weeks struggle and exhaustion stemmed from one simple but profound broken part of my heart. I do not hope in Heaven. Instead, I live as though this temporary and often times disappointing life is my only hope.  Allow me to lean on the wisdom of John Eldredge and share an excerpt from The Sacred Romance. 

“…We no longer live in a world under heaven. All the troubles of the human soul flow from here. All our addictions and depression and the rage that simmers beneath the surface of our Christian facade...the deadness that characterizes much of our lives has one common source: We think this life is as good as it gets. Take away our hope of arrival and our journey becomes a death march. Even the best human life is unspeakably sad. If we do escape some of the bigger tragedies (and few of us do), life rarely matches our expectations. When we do get a taste of what we really long for, it never lasts. Every vacation comes to an end. Friends move away. Our careers don’t quite pan out. Sadly, we feel guilty about our disappointment, as though we ought to be more grateful. Of course we’re disappointed, we were made for so much more. ‘God has set eternity in our hearts.’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Our longing for heaven whispers to us in our disappointments and screams through our agony.” 

I was literally designed for eternity, for the Kingdom of Heaven. And so were you. Of course we're disappointed. We were made for the renewal of all things.