Question: What is my future?
Fear: There is no future.
Eschatology is literally the study of “the end.” Unfortunately, for some it has connoted what I call the Disney fairy princess approach, i.e., wait around for the handsome prince to rescue you. Yet, if there is one thing that the passages on eschatology teach us about “the end,” it is that when the second advent occurs, Christ expects results.
To “that end,” what do you want your legacy to be? If our eschatology is merely attempting to decode the book of Revelation, then we’ve totally missed the point. A part of eschatology is dreaming about your end.
It’s also about imagining how your story fits into the larger narrative of God at work in the universe, which Revelation reveals will be a happy ending. What part do you play? This is a question that it is never too early or too late to ask. Abraham was past retirement when he was shown the stars and told he would be the father of a great nation, and Jeremiah was but a youth when he dreamed about the almond tree.
What’s it going to be? What are you making of your life? Or, more important, what do you want to make of your life? If you had ten million dollars and could do anything you want, what would it be?
Now figure out a way of doing that without the ten million dollars.
Going Deeper
N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
John Milton, Paradise Regained
Spilled Coffee on Ancient Scrolls 