Blogs
The Afterlife (?)
Thursday, April 15, 2021 by Barbara Higby
The word afterlife has been around since 1589. If you look it up in the dictionary you’ll find the primary definition is simple: existence after death. The implication is a secondary life after this one—this is life, afterlife comes after the years that count—after productive-living, dream-chasing, fulfillment-seeking, joy-giving, love-receiving years. Once you’ve lived those years you have, well, afterlife, suggesting a time that follows the real thing and is lesser. Could we get it any more wrong?
My friends, the afterlife is the real life. It is full, gratifying, and thrilling. What we have now is a beforelife*—before we get to the life that really counts. Eternity is not an afterthought tacked on when we breath our last. Eternity is what we are living for. It is our goal, reward, inheritance. It is fulness of life, when every dream is realized and every desire fulfilled.
We will experience grand adventures, appreciate unblemished beauty, and encounter uncompromised love. There will be no relationship struggles, misunderstood words, envy, or jealousy. There will be no sarcasm, anger, or snide remarks.
Our minds and bodies will be whole and unhindered. Our thoughts well be clear and pure and positive. We’ll express ourselves without confusion and be deeply understood. Those conversations that gratify us now because we feel connection will be our common experience only better.
We will climb mountains with indefatigable energy, swim oceans without tiring, gaze at galaxies with new eyes, comfortably walk with wild animals, socialize with people of all backgrounds, and worship with every tribe, nation, and tongue. It will be LIFE.
Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). We now live in the beforelife where the thief does steal, kill, and destroy—our hopes, dreams, joys, relationships, world. When we live real life, it will be rich and full, better than we can imagine.
*I started thinking about this when I read Heaven by Randy Alcorn.
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