(Ecclesiastes 3:11) says: “…He has also set eternity in the human heart…” While many of us live with little regard for eternity, whether we are Christians or not, God has placed a yearning within our hearts to want to live for eternity. But as Christians living in light of eternity is critical if we want to make sense of a world that is plagued with evil and suffering.
For the non-Christian who is uncertain of eternal life, evil and suffering can see so cruel and unfair. For example, why do hundreds of millions of people go hungry each day while we in America have food in abundance. Or what about people who have to live in wheelchairs for the rest of their lives? Making sense of all of this without the certainty of eternal life leaves us with a sense of hopelessness and sadness to see how suffering permeates so much of our world.
Thankfully, Christianity has the best worldview fit to explain many of our most perplexing issues of life such as the existence of evil and suffering in our world. For example, Christian Scientists deny the existence of evil and treat it as an illusion. Only Christianity can confront evil and suffering head on and share an ultimate solution to it. For we realize that life is training grounds for eternity, that trials and suffering allow our faith to grow and mature, and that this gives us the opportunity to glorify Jesus – which is the ultimate purpose in life.
When we have this eternal Christian perspective we can face even the severest trials with joy knowing that God has a good purpose in allowing us to go through them. The Apostle Paul gives us great comfort and meaning when we have to endure suffering when he shared in (Romans 8:18): “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” If present suffering can yield glory for us and to Jesus, and we know that eternal life awaits us, then life takes on real meaning in the now.
But yet, we often take our eyes off of this reality and let our emotions and our concern for the present steal our joy. I think that Theodore Epp understood this well when he said: “We are so easily entangled in earthly affairs and so easily consumed with the desire for those things that do not last. We will not live on this earth forever, so even our trials should be viewed in the light of eternity.”1
As a Christian I am learning more and more each day that while present enjoyment is important it must be weighted against the eternal joys that await me when I am willing to endure trials now for the sake of the kingdom. I like to view my present trials and sufferings as investments that have eternal significance. In other words, sometimes we need to endure trials and suffering now for future blessings. And if I can leave you with one verse that has proven a source of great comfort to me in this whole area of trials and suffering it would have to be (2 Corinthians 4:17): “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”