Eternity, planted in our hearts

Eternity
This one has been rumbling around in my head for a while, beginning with my wrestling with Sabbath issues last fall (see my Sabbath sermon presentation.) where I learned that our Sabbath rest is just practice for eternity - a time to nourish the seed of eternity in our souls. (cf. Abraham Heschel's book "Sabbath")

And like so many things during this season of sabbatical, God just keeps weaving this theme in and out of whatever I read or listen to.

Thoreau in "Walden"

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.

and elsewhere in Walden:

 As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.(Thoreau)

"Quiet desperation" - that sounds a lot like the Teacher in Ecclesiastes who says that "Everything is Meaningless"
The word "meaningless" is from the Hebrew Hevel = vapor, breath. In a Rob Bell sermon on Ecclesiastes, he says that we can try our best to manage the vapor in our lives. Normal wisdom literature tells you that if you do wise things, you will succeed. And those who do foolish things will fail. But in Ecclesiastes, the Teacher says none of it matters. The rules that you thought worked before, the way you were working before, they do not work. It is all "vapor". At least that is true for all that is "under the sun", e.g. created by God or created by us.

The counter balance to this is "eternity" which shows up in Ecclesiastes 3:11

Yet God has made everything beautiful in its own time.He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.

In part 2 of the Ecclesiastes sermon series, Shane Hipps says that this experience of eternity is independent of time. We all experience time dragging out (waiting for a package to arrive or in line at the airport) or speeding up when we are fully engaged in an activity we enjoy. When time "speeds up", we experience joy and peace.

How do we get to this point of eternity? We get there by "seeking first the kingdom of God", entering fully into the current moment with Jesus.

Everything else -past, future, mourning, dancing, gathering and throwing away - is transitory, vapor. We can do "vapor management" to try to control all those things, but when we get tired of playing "musical chairs" we can return to this place - this eternity in our hearts" with the help of the master. Just don't forget where the chair is when the song ends. Ask the Master to help you find it! (Musical chairs metaphor: Shain Hipps)

Peterson's book "Christ plays in 10,000 places" also touches on this (p. 108ff).

"How do we live so that the wonder and astonishment that so often comes to us unbidden and spontaneously isn't dissipated in trivial pursuits?" He says we need a focal practice which "focuses on eternity in a culture that is increasingly depersonalized and alarmingly fragmented". That practice is Sabbath keeping. 

"Sabbath creates a weekly bastion against the commodification of time, against reducing time to money, reducing tiem to what we can get out of it, against leaving no time for God or beauty or anything that can not be used or purchased. It is a defense against the hurry that desecrates time."Peterson, p. 111.

 I guess for me, this boils down to making time to nurture the seed of eternity in my heart, the presence of God, the kingdom of God, abundant life. 


At the Christian Leadership Alliance Conference last week, I went to a seminar on building a "Personal Rule of Life" by Steve Macchia (Gordon Conwell Seminary). The PRoL is

a holistic description of the Spirit-empowered rhythms and relationships that create, redeem, sustain, and transform the life God invites you to humbly fulfill for Christ’s glory.

To create a Personal Rule of Life you look prayerfully at your gifts, role, call, vision, mission, desires and then figure out
the "Rhythms and relationships" you want to to focus on for this season in your life: particular use of your time (spiritually), talent (missionally), temple (physically), treasure (financially), trust (relationally) in each major quadrant of life.
then  you map out activities and limitations for each day, week, month, season, year each of these areas.

Anyway, i am looking forward to having time to process this when part 3 of my sabbatical resumes in May 12.