A Greater Age to Come (The Glory of Technology?)

Just this morning I finished reading “12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You” by Tony Reinke. Loved it so much. The author and I share values, and I really appreciated his openness even about his own struggles with technology. I also appreciated that he’s not on either ‘far side of the spectrum’ if you can draw a line between LOVE TECHNOLOGY  and HATE TECHNOLOGY IT’S THE DEVIL (to put it simply). He offers thoughts and many well documented facts and argument for all sides.  He acknowledges the challenges and dangers of smartphones and technology, yet he praises the advancements of man and the incredible tools that can help us tremendously as we serve our God.

He sat with John Piper, who said this (paraphrased) “ Yes, they are glowing tools made mostly by men and women who are not submitted to God… and they are tools that open up my life to a thousand convenient temptations, but used with care and discipline (emphasis mine), the digital tools are a treasure chest of the glories of God”

Mr. Reinke goes on: “For many of us, who lack this maturity, technology feeds our vanity and kills our wonder. At worst, our phones are handheld wands of power that promise to protect our sinful isolation (ouch), showcase our self-aggrandizement (translation: promoting ourselves and our importance, another ouch), prop up our digital tower of self-praise (yup), feed our materialism (totally), lure us to so-called ‘anonymous’ vices (uh-huh), and offer an ‘escape’ (yeppers) from our creaturehood.”

BUT

“When we use our smartphones rightly, their shining screens radiate with the treasure of God’s glory in Christ, and in that glory-glow, we get a sneak peek into a greater age to come.”

That’s it.

Those last words.

A GREATER AGE TO COME

This idea of many more ages to come in Eternity has been rolling around in my head for a couple years. When we look at history, we see different eras and ages… The Middle Ages, The Renaissance, the Golden Age, etc. So if there ages and eras in the past, then we must be in a some sort of ‘Age’ now that will likely be named something besides ‘The Modern Age’ many years in the future once we’re all dead (and by dead I mean alive) and gone (and by gone I mean existing in another place) waiting for Jesus to make His glorious return.

What I’m trying to say here is that as humankind, we are moving forward. We are not stagnant.

So.

Once Jesus has come back and taken some of us to Heaven for eternity, where we shall LIVE FOREVER with each other and with Him, then will the ages not continue there? It is LIFE, after all, and not just a never-ending-church-service (booooring). What does LIFE entail? You know… eating, resting, enjoying friendships and family, work, projects, occasions, celebrations, exploring, researching, learning and ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN IMAGINE THAT DOESN’T INCLUDE SIN.

I mean, really… life is going to be full. We’re going to look back on this current life and say “ppppfffffff’, that was nuthin”. And the next life (the one that lasts forever after this one that is gone as fast as a vapor) is going to move forward, and it’s going to be exciting and purposeful and we are going to use our gifts and talents and share our lives with old friends and new friends.

And if life is moving forward, and we are continuing to work (work is worship, FYI) and if we’re going to use our gifts like those men and women that God has given amazing minds for rocket engineering and quantum physics and computer engineering… then WHY OH WHY would technology and invention STOP?

It wouldn’t.

It would MOVE FORWARD.

It would move forward in a most wonderful way. The forward motion would involve no sin and everything would truly be done for and with the glory of our creator God.

And so when the author says that “The point of scripture is that the wicked city Babylon and all of its godless machinery (he’s talking about this planet in its current state) will be uprooted and cast away (halleluiah!) to make room for God’s city, the New Jerusalem, shining with sights and technologies now unimaginable and exceeding all human ingenuity and expectation”…

… my spirit screams YYYEEESSS! This is true. God is infinitely creative and creatING (present tense). God lives in us. And we will live together forever in eternity, so PEOPLE, the ages that will come in heaven are going to be beautiful. It means we’re going to keep moving forward. Our technologies in eternal ages to come WILL bring glory to God. Their research and design and creation will be joy-filled work that is pure WORSHIP to His name.

And it’s not just technologies.

The expressions of art and music will be new and fresh time after time.

Those who love to teach are going to find new ways to pass on information with the passion God has put in them.

Writing skills are going to evolve and improve and people will find new avenues of articulation.

Those who can organize and administrate will find new ways to manage lives and information and everything else and have such joy doing that.

Buildings and structures and homes will have new shapes and ideas and constructions.

Fashions will change and evolve.

The foods that we grow and prepare and partake of will endlessly change and surprise and delight us.

I mean seriously.

I could go on and on.

It WILL go on and on.

I can’t wait.

Tuning-Up

“It’s as if life on this side of the door is the preliminaries,” I said, “and on the other side is the main event. Like this is the tune-up and that’s the concert.”

…

“We live our lives in eternity’s lobby” I said, “Walking toward a door that will forever seal our destiny.”

-Randy Alcorn, Edge of Eternity (a novel)

And Back Again…

Change is headed our way. Again.

It has been sought after. It has been chosen. It has been welcomed.

But it is not easy.

In fact it might be the hardest change I have ever chosen.

---------

Back in the summer, we were feeling ready for a change. We have this tendency to feel a little too comfortable sometimes and seek out change. Seek out challenge. This is definitely true for me and you can see it easily because I move my furniture around every few weeks if I can. I like a change. I like things to feel different. I like the challenge of adjusting, reorganizing, creating new systems. Geeky, I know.

So this summer we were just praying. Praying for guidance on which path to take. The path that would lead us to several more years Stateside? Or the path that would lead us back overseas.
I could see myself walking down either path. Neither path would have been easy. Even the staying path definitely had some challenges in it.

The past two years we have had in our current home is the longest time we have been settled in a place since Mike and I were married over 10 years ago. We lived in Africa for 7 of it, but it was NEVER stable. Much of it was wondering whether we’d be there by the time the seasons changed (oh wait, the seasons never changed, ha!) or spent coming back and forth .  These couple years of stability in our home have been a true gift for me. It’s been deeply healing and restorative.

In the meantime God has been teaching me so much about eternal perspective. He put this topic deep in my spirit and it’s shaping who I am. I think a decent strategy for resisting the pulls of this current life and maintaining an eternal perspective is to live in a place that you normally wouldn’t and to intentionally make decisions that don’t lead to an ‘easy’ life. When things are too easy we tend to get too comfortable and turn our eyes inward. Those are two great ways to stay focused on our true purposes. This life is a mere speck on a borderless canvas of forever-life.  I don’t want to forget that. I want to remain focused.

Comfort, safety, long worry-less days with dear friends and family, time to pursue passions and hobbies, endless time to explore God’s creation, writing, reading, creating, laughing, relaxing, enjoying the work of my hands… that is all in my eternal future. A lot of that is in my present life too, but I see those things now as TASTE of what is to come… not what I put my main effort towards in this life. Those things (in their true, full expressions) are part of the paradise that I’m headed for. I don’t want the shaping of those things into a paradise for myself NOW to be what I put my life towards.

These past two years have given me the tiniest glimpse into the loving community we will have with fellow believers in heaven. And I’m inspired. I live in community that truly feels like doing daily life with a bunch of brothers and sisters. It does have it’s difficulties (like in any family), but I feel like I’m truly a part of the body of Christ. I may have the sort of community around me now that many search their entire lives for and never find.

I’m a blessed, blessed woman.

Blessed to be a blessing.

All this blessing has motivated me to push on towards eternity. It’s given me a taste of what's to come. And it’s challenged me to resist the comfort and say “See ya later”  to it all for now and step into the unknown.

Leaving is going to hurt. It already hurts. Deep, tear-pouring, body-wracking hurt that hits me in waves. What we have now I may never have again this side of eternity. But I do have full confidence that it’ll come again for me after I pass from this life to this next, because of what I believe Jesus did for me on the cross. 

It’s the depth of love that I have for community now that makes it hurt so badly to leave.

It’s the taste of this blessed season that is my fuel for stepping back into the desert.



Sahara Desert to the Rocky Mountains… and back again…

(move planned for the fall of this year)