“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
    and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
    for those who love him.” – 1 Corinthians 2:9

Okay. So if you know me at all then you already understand that I am constantly thinking and rethinking how best to understand and communicate the basics of faith. I grew up Baptist, then grafted easily into the Reformed tradition through the Presbyterian Church. My central idea when it comes to Christianity is simply this: I believe that Jesus is God’s invitation home.

Salvation is when we respond to Christ’s invitation and join in with the Creator’s initiatives of love, grace, mercy, justice, healing, reconciliation, light, restoration and more. It’s not a ticket to heaven, it’s about joining in with God’s good work – and our relationship to God’s purposes will continue when we move from this life to the next.

One day I was in conversation with somebody more inclined to double down on the “turn or burn” approach.

• “Do you know where you are going when you die?” he pressed.
• “Before or after the cremation,” I quip.
• “For eternity,” he replies. “Where will you be for eternity?”
• “Eternity?” I smile. “I believe eternity starts when we begin to live….”

“I believe eternity starts when we begin to live.”

Try as I may, there is no way that I could truly live – especially in the way Jesus talks about living – without engaging each new day as a person of faith.

When Jesus talks about “abundant life” (John 10:10), and when the writer of First Timothy talks about “the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:17-19), neither one of them is referencing something that begins after we leave this world and are then sent either one way or the other.

No, eternity starts when we begin to live. The beautiful truth is that it can be now. In John 11, just before raising Lazarus from death, Jesus points out that “Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.”

“Never die,” Jesus says. Not referencing something “after” we die, but eternity beginning right now.

My invitation to live

I don’t know about you, but the good news Jesus offers resonates at the core of my being. Salvation is not an insurance policy against going to hell after we die, Jesus is an invitation into life now – today and then tomorrow too.

This reminds me of the poignant story Rebekah tells about the guy she was talking to at the gas station. “Do you have a church home?” she asked. “All they ever did was tell me I am going to hell when I die,” he replied. “Lady, I’m already there.”

One day this particular leg of my journey will be over, and I have no doubt that what comes next will be “Some kind of Wonderful.” In the meanwhile I have today, and then tomorrow, and the balance of this life.

I intend to live into the truth of Paul’s words in First Corinthians, when he quoted Isaiah: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Not just then, but now; not only in the next life, but in this one; not a future reward so much as a present reality. – DEREK