How to Live With Eternity in Mind

Aug 24

There are certain things that can feel incredibly important while we are living them.

The conversation we keep replaying in our heads. The house project we cannot seem to finish. The purchase we have been thinking about for weeks. The plans we are trying to make. The thing someone said that hurt our feelings. The future we are anxious about.

None of these things are necessarily bad. In fact, many of them are good and important parts of our lives. But sometimes I wonder how differently I would approach my days if I could actually see my life from the perspective of eternity.

That is something I have been thinking about since my conversation with Addy Christensen on the Lighten Up Podcast.

Addy has an incredible conversion story, but one particular part of her testimony has continued to stay with me. After surviving a devastating car accident while pregnant with her daughter and with her young son in the car, she realized that the accident had changed more than her circumstances. It changed the way she thought about her relationship with God and the reality of eternity.

Before the accident, she described herself as going through the motions of her faith. She was practicing her faith, but she did not have the same awareness of eternity that she had afterward.

That distinction really struck me.

Because I think it is possible to believe in eternity without actually living like eternity is real.

We Can Believe in Eternity and Still Forget About It

I know I am guilty of this.

I believe that this life is temporary. I believe that heaven is real. I believe that what happens after this life matters infinitely more than the things I spend so much time worrying about here.

And yet, I can still spend an entire afternoon completely consumed by something that will probably mean very little to me a year from now.

It is one of the strange things about being human. We know intellectually that our time here is limited, but the ordinary rhythm of life can make it very easy to forget.

We wake up. We make breakfast. We answer messages. We work. We take care of our families. We run errands. We scroll. We make dinner. We clean something that will somehow need to be cleaned again tomorrow. We go to bed and do it all over again.

There is nothing wrong with an ordinary life. In fact, I think God is deeply present in the ordinary.

But somewhere in the middle of all of it, we can forget where we are actually going.

Paul writes in Colossians 3:2, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

I love that this is a command about where we set our minds.

Because our attention is constantly being pulled somewhere.

Something is always asking us to worry about it, buy it, fix it, compare ourselves to it, react to it, or obsess over it. If we are not intentional about where we place our attention, the temporary things of this life can slowly become the most important things in our lives.

Living with eternity in mind gives us a different way to approach those things.

What Does It Mean to Live With Eternity in Mind?

Living with eternity in mind does not mean ignoring your responsibilities or becoming detached from your earthly life.

It does not mean you cannot care about your home, your career, your marriage, your children, your friendships, or the things that bring you joy.

God gave us this life for a reason.

The question is what place those things have in our hearts.

When eternity is in view, the things of this life can find their proper place.

That argument with your spouse may still matter, but perhaps winning the argument matters less than loving the person standing in front of you.

That stressful situation at work may still need your attention, but perhaps it does not deserve your peace.

The beautiful things you want to buy can still be enjoyed, but they do not have to become the source of your happiness.

Your plans for the future can still be good plans, while you remember that God's plans are ultimately bigger than your own.

Eternity does not make our earthly lives meaningless. It gives them perspective.

Sometimes We Need to Remember How Short This Life Really Is

One of the images Hannah mentioned during the conversation with Addy was an illustration Francis Chan has used before.

Imagine a long rope that represents eternity. Now imagine that the very beginning of that rope has only a tiny red section representing our earthly life.

That little red section is our entire time here.

The rest goes on and on.

When you think about it that way, it becomes almost uncomfortable to consider how much of our attention can be consumed by the tiny section.

We spend so much energy trying to make this life comfortable, successful, impressive, beautiful, and secure.

Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting good things. But there is a danger when we begin treating temporary things as though they are permanent.

James reminds us that our life is “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

That is not meant to make us hopeless. I actually find it strangely freeing.

If my life is short, then I do not need to spend it trying to control everything.

If my life is short, I can forgive.

If my life is short, I can stop putting off prayer.

If my life is short, I can make time for the people I love.

If my life is short, I can care less about being impressive and more about being faithful.

If my life is short, I can stop acting as though every inconvenience is a crisis.

There is something very clarifying about remembering that we are not here forever.

What If We Treated Today Like It Actually Matters?

Sometimes conversations about eternity can feel very far away.

Heaven can seem like something we will think about when we are old. Death can feel like something that belongs to another stage of life. Spiritual growth can become something we will get more serious about someday when life settles down.

But there may not be a more convenient season coming.

There will probably always be laundry.

There will always be another bill.

There will always be another project.

There will always be another thing we would like to buy.

There will always be another reason to put off the things that actually matter.

That is why I think living with eternity in mind starts with today.

What would change about your day if you remembered that today is part of your eternal story?

Maybe you would spend five quiet minutes in prayer before reaching for your phone.

Maybe you would go to confession instead of continuing to put it off.

Maybe you would finally apologize.

Maybe you would call someone you have been meaning to call.

Maybe you would stop letting comparison steal your joy.

Maybe you would spend a little less time worrying about what everyone else thinks and a little more time asking what God is asking of you.

These decisions may look very small from the outside.

But our lives are made up of small decisions.

Our Ordinary Lives Can Become Preparation for Eternity

One thing I appreciate about Catholic spirituality is how often it brings us back to the ordinary.

Prayer. The sacraments. Scripture. The Rosary. Serving our families. Loving our neighbor. Practicing patience. Going to Mass. Confessing our sins. Learning to forgive.

These things can seem repetitive, especially when we have been doing them for years.

But maybe that repetition is part of the point.

We are slowly becoming the people we are choosing to be.

Every time I choose patience instead of anger, I am practicing love.

Every time I turn toward God instead of toward distraction, I am practicing dependence on Him.

Every time I forgive, I am practicing the kind of love I want to receive from God.

Every time I make room for prayer in the middle of a busy day, I am reminding myself that God is more important than whatever happens to be demanding my attention at that moment.

Our ordinary lives are not interruptions to our spiritual lives.

They are where our spiritual lives happen.

We Don't Have to Live in Fear of Eternity

There is an important distinction here.

Thinking about eternity should not make us live in constant fear.

For Christians, eternity is not supposed to be a terrifying countdown. It is ultimately about being with God forever.

That should create a deeper love for Him, not simply anxiety about what happens when we die.

Addy's story reminded me of that in a really beautiful way. Her accident was terrifying, but what she took away from it was not simply fear of death. She came away with a renewed understanding of the gift of her life and a deeper desire to know God.

That is a very different way of thinking about eternity.

Instead of asking, “How can I make sure I get through this life safely?” we can begin asking, “How can I use this life to become closer to God?”

That question changes things.

It changes what we value.

It changes what we prioritize.

It changes what we are willing to let go of.

And it changes how we see the people around us.

What Would Change If You Remembered That Eternity Is Real?

I think this is the question I am taking away from this conversation.

What am I giving my attention to?

What am I allowing to consume my peace?

What am I treating as though it is permanent when it is actually temporary?

And perhaps most importantly, am I actually growing in my relationship with God, or am I simply going through the motions?

Those are not always comfortable questions.

But I think they are good ones.

Because we are given this incredibly short, incredibly beautiful gift of life, and we do not know how many days we have.

We know that our time here will end.

We also know that eternity will not.

So I want to remember that when I am tempted to get worked up over something that will not matter forever. I want to remember it when I am distracted by things I think I need. I want to remember it when I am putting off prayer because I am too busy.

And I want to remember it when life is beautiful, too.

Because living with eternity in mind does not mean caring less about this life.

It means learning to see this life for what it is: a gift, a preparation, and a very small part of a much bigger story.

We have today.

We have this moment.

We have the people God has placed in front of us.

And we have the opportunity to love Him a little more faithfully than we did yesterday.

That feels like a pretty good way to spend our little piece of the rope.