“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Has anyone figured out how to answer that question? If so, please share it with the class. Students are expected to answer it all the time for guidance counselors and college essays. During interviews, job applicants get hit with it, too. Maybe you’re tempted to honestly answer, “Dude, I’m just trying to get through today!” Yet, there is a way to know where we are headed.
The choices we are making today determine where we end up.
To put things in perspective, there is a destination we all share: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10 ESV). What happens then will reflect our choices now. “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened…And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done” (Rev. 20:12).
Tragically, the story of our lives is one of sin (cf. Rom. 3:23). Instead of glorifying God like we were created to do, we spend our lives away from Him. We make some money, enjoy some good health, and form some relationships – but we only ever worry about fulfilling our desires or meeting others’ expectations. It’s very easy to live that way, simply going with the flow; but that road inevitably leads to destruction (cf. Matt. 7:13). It might be hard to believe that is where “good people” like us could be headed, but it’s the cold hard truth: if we spend our lives away from God now, we’ll spend eternity away from Him, too, in a painful “second death” away from His presence forever (cf. Rev. 20:14-15, 2 Thes. 1:8-9).
Unless our names are “written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27, cf. 20:15). Those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”, who “loved not their lives even unto death”, and who “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” are led somewhere much different (Rev. 7:14, 12:11, 14:4). Because Jesus is that Lamb, and He leads us into God’s presence. We live in God’s presence each day of our lives now. We aren’t perfect. We still struggle. Yet, we’re seeking Him. His forgiveness. His help. His glory. As we make those choices each day, we anticipate when “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God”, wiping away our tears as He puts an end to death, mourning, crying, and pain forever (Rev. 21:3-4).
Our choices today are moving us one way or another: where do you see yourself? If we want to be in God’s presence then, we should start going Jesus’ way right now.
Explore more in our serious lesson series on Sin.