Newfound truth

Better is one day in your courts...than thousands elsewhere.

This used to be a truth that I nodded and smiled at, but inwardly rejected. I mean, really, we know heaven's great and all, but who really wants to go there without first fully enjoying his days on earth? Seriously--before this morning, I'd always held the adament viewpoint that I should be allowed to enjoy my life to its full extent before I had to go to heaven--a place in my selfish mind where endless singing and light could get annoying. Who doesn't want to get married someday? Or experience the exhileration as the first child is placed into trembling arms? Or see that same child grow up, graduate and begin her own family? Who doesn't want to enjoy easy life after retirement and die only when he's nothing more to accomplish? Maybe you can't relate, but these thoughts have been obstinately prominent in my sinful thinking.
But this morning, as the praise team sang these words--the congregation seemed to hold a collective breath as truth resounded throughout the room. It was in this moment that I came to agree with their proclamation. This world is so finite! My current state of survival isn't my life!--the most joy that I can imagine now is only a fleeting shadow, an intangible vapor in comparison to the eternal happiness I will experience in the presence of the one who created laughter--who ordained each breathtaking moment, and who has prepared heaven to be the everlasting "grand finale" to the small taste of life that we sample here.

Better is one day in your courts,

Better is one day in your house,

Better is one day in your courts,

Than thousands elsewhere...

Than thousands elsewhere.

I can now sincerely say with irrepressable excitement that I am ready to go home...whenever He wants me.