Ahhh… can you see it?  Look there, off in the distance.  Just beyond the horizon.  Shining, glimmering, calling out to you… If you can’t quite see it yet, wait until noon.  That’s when we crest the uphill climb every Wednesday and begin our descent into the always anticipated weekend.

The weekend.  Most look forward to it.  Some live for it.  Some revel in it so much that, as the old joke goes, they have to go back to work on Monday to get some rest.

Today, I want to show you something to look forward to even more than the weekend.  If things are getting stressful or tough and you see no end in sight to whatever situation you are facing, remember: just like the workweek – and the weekend – nothing lasts forever.

Except, that is, eternity.  (I know… thanks for pointing out the obvious…)

Eternity.  That is exactly what I want to get you thinking about.  How wrapped up do we get in our own little lives?  How many trivialities eat away at our time, our finances, our nervous systems?  How much focus do we put on things that, in a year or two or twenty, will not matter?

Consider what the apostle James wrote:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. – James 4:13-14 (ESV)

A mist.  Here today.  Gone tomorrow.  And for what?

If that sounds depressing, it shouldn’t be.  Let’s face it: this life is tough.  Stress, sorrows, pain, disease, guilt, toil…

But – if you think about it – on average we are only on this earth for 67.2 years.  That is the world life expectancy as of 2010 (according to The CIA World Fact Book).  And that’s pretty impressive, considering the number was half that (or less) up until around a century ago.

But even that is a speck compared to eternity.  Eternity is hard to grasp because it is a dimension we finite, time-bound humans have never experienced.  To understand eternity is to understand what it is to live unshackled by clocks and calendars.  Eternity is… well… eternal!  It never began.  It never ends.

Eternity – that wonderful place outside of time – is where we will be.  And, for believers in Christ, we will spend that time in the presence of Almighty God, Eternal Creator of All (including eternity itself).  Now… seriously… stop and think about that.  Eternity.  Forever.  No end.

No pain.

No sorrow.

No sin.

No depression.

No boredom.

No heartache.

No killing.

No disease.

No bondage.

No bitterness.

No fear.

No worry.

No need to live for the weekend.

Eternity worshipping our loving God Who so graciously gave His Son so we can spend eternity with Him.

And, if you don’t believe in Jesus, I have one simple question for you: what have you got to lose?  If I’m wrong, you’ve lost nothing.  Your life’s end on this earth will be just what you believe.  But, if I’m right (and this is not a boast of anything to do with me, it is all God’s grace and mercy and all in His Word), you will still have to face eternity. 

And it won’t be nearly as pleasant.

I cannot imagine what eternity totally separated from God is like.  The thought makes me shudder.

And, trust me, eternity lasts a lot longer than the 50-some hour mid-hump-day slide into the weekend.