The Heaven We Create

             Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)

 

            No pun intended, but it may seem as though I’m beating a dead horse. Today’s chapter in Journey of Desire seems to cover the same material. We need to have dreams. We’re supposed to have desires. But God keeps interfering. John Eldridge talks about five years in which he tried to go fly fishing. The first year, there was a blizzard. The second year, thunderstorms ruined the fishing. Someone opened the dam the third year, and again ruined the fishing. Drought hit the fourth year and the fifth, the fish just didn’t bite. Later, as he drove by a piece of property, he thought, “I could really be happy here without God.” (p. 100.) That’s when he realized the problem. As he put it, “God must take away the heaven we create, or it will become our hell.”

            That sentence sums up what he’s been circling, and it almost stunned me. This is what I said yesterday, but better than I said it.  And we know that the heaven He creates is so much better than the one we create. He has promised us heaven, but not necessarily the heaven we think. Sometimes our dreams need tempering or maturity. Sometimes we need to mature or be tempered. Sometimes, someone or something else needs to be tempered or matured.

 We’ve seen it in Scripture. Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac, the son who was promised to him. Joseph spent decades in Egypt as a slave. The Israelites were promised a land flowing with milk and honey but spent forty years wandering in the wilderness. David was promised a throne but spent years hiding from Saul. Israel is still waiting for their Messiah. We are waiting for His return. There are dreams I had when I was young that I am peeking at from behind bushes and trees. I understand much better now what is needed to realize them, and I know I am unequal to the task, but I don’t know for sure that the dreams are not from the earthly nature that we are to put to death.