Living Here and Living Eternally

I haven't really felt too insightful lately, but Cade forwarded this to me from Rick Warren (author of The Purpose Driven Life)...I have tried to condense it, but it gave me some perspective regarding our circumstances.  Hopefully, if you are carrying a burden right now, regardless of how big or small, this can help you step back and see you are probably right where God wants you. 

   In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.   One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.  I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity..  We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
    Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
   This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.  Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life..
   No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:   If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
   We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people. 
   You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?   Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.. 

Yesterday was a rough day for me personally.  I think I was only focusing on the bad, the frustrations, and just feeling sorry for myself.  But through all of this, I have seen so much good, especially God using the Body of Christ as His hands and feet.  I have so much and so many people to be grateful for.  I have had to trust God more than anything to protect our children when we couldn't be there and to trust that He has the best timing set aside for this little baby to come into our world.  I thank Him and each of you for making these last 7 weeks a time to grow and a time for our family to lean into Him and the Christ-centered people He has put in our lives.  God bless you all!  Take care.   love, Jill