Our Reward Is Not On Earth

It’s almost freaky how over the last several months I’ve had this recurring conversation with people. Each exchange has been due to its own special set of circumstances, and each has involved different people, but the overall theme remains the same.

The over-riding question that has prevailed is this:
Why do things always work out for people who stink? Cheat? Lie? Steal (company time & resources)? Do the wrong thing? Take the shortcuts? Take advantage? Are lazy? Why…yet it always seems to work out so well for them…why?

Why? WHY??? And why then especially when there are those of us out there bustin’ our hineys every day, doing the right thing, working our fingers to the bone, telling the truth, playing by the rules, paying our taxes, helping others, trying to make a real difference, giving to church, going to church, living right and yet we can’t seem to catch a break?

WHY?

The flippant, easy answer is this: Life ain’t fair, sister! So suck it up and deal with it.

But I think we do ourselves, our friends and colleagues, and especially our children, a real disservice when we reduce it to that.

I think the answer lies much deeper than that…I’m willing to bet my every worldly possession that it is because our reward is not on earth. It’s not like I’ve known this or been as sure as I am today about this for my whole life. In fact, it has taken lots of reading of scripture and praying and thinking over the last 39.999999 years to fully grow into it, but I am really, really sure now.

There are plenty of instances in which to contemplate the concept:
(And I don’t mean for these examples to sound judgmental…I’m just sure we’ve all witnessed at least one of these where it wasn’t based on judgment, but on cold, hard fact that this is what was happening.)
Why does the person at work seem to get rewarded over and over even though she doesn’t play by the rules?
Why am I working so hard with such little gain, while I watch her get ahead by cheating and lying?
Why did I do the work, but she got the credit?
Why is she favored when she so blatantly lacks integrity by cheating the company?
…and of course there are the obvious ones…
Why did he die young when he was such a good person?
Why does one neighbor’s family struggle financially when they always do the right thing, but another neighbor’s family has everything they need and more, yet they are so nasty to others?
Why does she, of all people, have to suffer with cancer?

From being passed up for things I worked hard for in school all the way to a very specific instance with a co-worker a couple of weeks ago, this question has come up in my life over and over again. So maybe I write this now as much to remind myself as anyone else…

The only answer I’ve got is that our reward is not on earth. Our reward will be in Heaven. And while the here and now sometimes FEELS like an eternity, it is merely a blip on the screen. But what we do now, during that “blip”, determines where we get to live…with whom we get to live…for what really will be eternity.


I wish I had more…but these are my insights and totally my personal takes on it:
**The phrase “we reap what we sow” has eternal implications!
**Satan likes people who don’t live right, who don’t play by the “rules”, so he makes sure that he sets them up well to live the following lie: there are no negative consequences for your actions. (This helps lure more people to him.)
**God doesn’t actually promise that life will be sweet and rosy because we believe in Him. He promises that with a new life in Christ we will have eternal life and will never be without Him. He promises that eternal life with Him will be paradise and it is worth waiting for.
**God is hoping to see that we’ll hang in there, that we’ll stick with Him, that we’ll believe His promises, no matter what. He wants to see if we are easily dissuaded or if our words (claiming we follow Him) and our actions (actually following Him) match. He wants to see how easily we give up and throw in the towel.
**God is testing our integrity and our worldliness…testing us to see if we’ll “sell out” to instant gratification at some point.
**Adversity can, if we choose to let it, cause us to become better, stronger people. God also hopes we’ll use what we learn from our experiences to help others, especially our children who are looking to us to see why they should remain on the straight and narrow.
**God will reward us greatly in eternity when time after time he sees us choosing the right actions and the right attitudes when we know there is no earthly gain.
**He is keeping a record, a “report card” of sorts, and He will have a student-teacher conference with us about it someday. On that day all justice will be served for the many things we did right…and the many times we fell short of His glory.
**Every single thing…yes, every last little thing, no matter how small it may seem…that you do in His name is adding to YOUR cache of treasure in Heaven.
**God sees all of the works that you do, the true intent behind each one, and the depth of the core of your belief in Him and love for Him.

Luke 6:23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in
heaven.”
Matthew 16:27 “He will reward each according to his works.”
Matthew 19:21 “You will have treasure in heaven.”
Luke 14:14 “You will be blessed…for you shall be repaid at the resurrection.”

I can often be found saying the following two statements aloud to myself (apparently I need a lot of reminders):
1. The high road is a lonely road, but it is the one I choose to take.
2. My reward is not on earth.

That’s all I’ve got…no other answers…but I’m really sure that I’m right. And I’m really sure that it’ll be worth it.

If you only read one more book in your lifetime, read A Life God Rewards by Bruce Wilkinson. One of the most poignant things he says (and there are many) is this, “Our eternal destination is the consequence of what we believe on earth. Our eternal compensation is the consequence of how we behave on earth.”

Personally, I’d rather “suck it up and deal with it” even though “life ain’t fair”, trusting in God’s every move, choosing the lonely high road over and over again, believing in a wonderful loving Savior, so that I can secure my rightful place at the Feet of the Throne.

Of course when I get there, one of my very first questions to Jesus will be, “Remember X at work (can’t type the names or the situation here…)? What the heck was up with that? Cause, man, did I get the short end of the stick on that one!!”
I sincerely hope He’ll explain and follow up with, “Hey, girl…how you handled that…well done, my good and faithful servant! I knew your heart then and I remember it now, and it contributed to your storehouse of treasure.”

My prayer for all of us:
Dear God, help us stay on the straight and narrow even when it seems like the tougher path. Help us hold fast to Biblical truths, and help us find strength in Christian friends who will encourage us to keep running toward you even when that’s not the easiest or most convenient thing. Give us the stamina we need to cling to you instead of being wooed by the instant gratification of this world. Help us to be patient now so that we may spend a beautiful eternity with you in Heaven. And most importantly, give us the insight and the honesty to use our life experiences to teach our children to do the same. Amen.

Question: Do you believe your reward is in Heaven…I mean really believe?

Reminders of Hope and Promise

I've been fascinated by rainbows my whole life… From Kermit the Frog singing about the Rainbow Connection, which, I might add, I did a stunning rendition of (OK, maybe not so much!) in the Jefferson School Elementary talent show as a duet with Angie Overdorf & Dee Stahly on keyboard, to my love of Mork’s suspenders. My love of color runs deep.

On the way to school this morning I saw a gorgeous rainbow. Close to my house I could see the left side of it, but as I drove it disappeared for a few minutes. Once I was closer to school, I could see the arch and right side of it. Beautiful! It made me smile and gave me an enormous sense of peace.

Oh, I get the science behind it, and though that's not the point, I love that God thought up that when the sun's rays are refracted through raindrops the white light is separated into Roy G. Biv. How God delights me when He places that little gift in the sky!

And I also love that hundreds and hundreds of years later, God still sends us reminders of His covenant with us through that same way He did Noah:
Genesis 9:16 “Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

This morning as I drove (trying to keep my eyes on the road instead of in the sky) I wondered how many people missed it. I'm sure the people heading east couldn't see it. Older guy getting his Indy Star surely missed it...the line of pine trees by his mailbox blocked his view, but would he have seen it even if they hadn't? When I got to school I wondered how many people had grabbed their bags and their lattes and had not even looked up. How many people hurried on their way without looking? How many people were too engrossed in their own stuff to see the reminder?

Kind of a metaphor for life in a few ways, I guess:
1.) God wants us to be positive about life and to see all of the beauty in it! So stop looking down all the time. Keep your chin up, literally and figuratively and look around...it'll be worth it!
2.) There is plenty of evidence that God is alive and working in this world if we will open our eyes and look for Him. He can only do so much to show us...we have to meet Him half way by looking and accepting what He gives as that evidence, but the evidence is everywhere.
3.) Sometimes life feels hard, like trudging through mud, but God had not forgotten us. The politics of the world are scary, but God is watching and holding us close. Cancer, death, divorce…plenty of heavy things happen to people we know and love, but God is there to pick up the pieces. You are not forgotten.

My prayer for all of us: Dear God, help us see the multiple ways you show us evidence of your existence and your power each and every day. Let that evidence stamp out even the smallest doubts that you are working on our behalf. Amen.

When it feels like your own life is the modern-day version of exactly what happened in Genesis 8, “For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth” and “the waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days” I encourage you to look up. When you feel like your “rain” will never end, know that it will. Just hang on a little longer.

God keeps his promises. Will you believe that He does whether or not you see the reminder?

Question: Do you believe that God keeps His promises? Do you believe that rainbows are still a relevant reminder of God’s covenant?