Setting eternal goals

Martha Olawale

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV).

The whole point of the Christian faith is to spend eternity with Christ, and nothing in the world can match that expectation. With all we deal with here on earth, as Christians and non-Christians, where we end up is determined by our response to the cross of Christ. While we have the choice to accept or reject Jesus, only our trust and obedience in Him guarantees eternity in Heaven. 

My mother’s love for Jesus was so tangible that even her fight with occasional illnesses and dementia could not erase Him from her memory. I recall the last time I saw her. As I walked into her room, she was sitting on her bed, singing. She looked at me and called me by my sister’s name because she could not remember who I was. I’ve known her to sing everywhere, but I was still baffled by how she could remember the words to different hymns when she could not remember her daughter’s name.

When I became a Christian in my teens, it was natural for me to pursue the beauty of the relationship I knew my mother enjoyed with Jesus. Through her, I learned that God’s love is eternal ,with root too deep to be pulled out by any sickness or persecution. Although mum’s life was far from being perfect, her love for God was consistent and she expressed it through unwavering devotion to the basic tenets of the Christian faith; prayer, worship, evangelism and studying the Scriptures. 

Today, Christianity is so watered down that it makes me long for the beauty of the simplicity of following Christ. Our focus is shifting from all that truly matters, and we ramble around for clarity to things already answered in the Bible. We give preeminence to temporal things over eternal goals and simplify the cores of our faith while magnifying immediate gratifications. I stretch for the height of trust I knew my mother had in her heavenly father. A love so intimate that even in her down moments, He was her greatest passion. 

I was far from being my mother’s best friend and even struggled to understand her most of the time as a child. But when I found my space in the family of God, I understood why the billows could not upturn her. She understood that her journey on earth was for a while and her goal was to step into heaven, victorious. All her troubles were too minimal to shift her focus from Jesus. Her death was painful, yet most comforting. That day, I knew exactly where she was and was grateful. She finally got to rest from her years of fighting sicknesses and the inconsistencies of life.

While it’s imperative we enjoy our time here on earth, I don’t want to get so engrossed in my desire to make earth comfortable for me, that I lose focus of my final destination with Jesus (read “Heaven is home”). More than all legacies, I pray for the grace to pass the beauty of Christ’s love to my children. I want them to know that as Christians; we are on a race that leads to a specific place—heaven. Above all gratifications, I want them to rejoice in the hope of eternity with Jesus. 

“For real security is in Heaven and thus earth affords only imitations.” C.S Lewis