eternity

The Article You Don’t Want to Read

LAURA PATTERSON | GUEST For the third time in five months, I found myself at the bedside of a dying family member. Yet again, I watched the regimented push of morphine and changing respiratory patterns that led to the death rattle. Apneas increased and lengthened, extra morphine was pushed, and that final breath—ready or not, it came. She went to her Father’s house on Father’s Day. My precious Granny was 86. Spoon-feeding her those final bites on earth felt so inadequate when I thought of all the ways she had fed me in my lifetime. Holding her cold, clammy hand on her deathbed could never match all the ways her hands had tenderly held me and my children. I felt helpless to provide the comfort and peace I longed to give her. She had lived a long life, but death still felt like an armed intruder. Death will always be an enemy in this life. But, to the one who will listen, death is perhaps the best teacher there is. The author of Ecclesiastes tells us this when he says, ”the day of death is better than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart” (7:1-2). What can we learn from death and how can we pursue its instruction?...

The Article You Don’t Want to ReadChristina Fox2025-04-12T18:16:45+00:00

Wrestling With God in Our Suffering

JULIANNE ATKINSON |GUEST As soon as I saw the area code of the phone call my husband was receiving, I knew something was off. I was pregnant with our first child and set to move for his job to Nashville, TN at the beginning of my third trimester. This was a city I had friends in, I knew there were good churches there, and it was a city we both liked. After a short conversation, my husband conveyed the news that there was a post they hadn’t accounted for in rural, northern New York state and he was now at the top of the list to take it. I was disappointed, but it wasn’t my first move and I hoped that God would have a good church and community there waiting when we arrived. Instead, I found a desolate place I never grew to love. I had left a large church in San Antonio where I was on staff and knew and loved each family and their kids by name. In New York, there were a handful of families hoping for a PCA pastor to come and pastor them. Church members brought meals when I had my son, but it felt more like they were checking off a box than done so out of friendship. I gathered the women of the church and started a Bible study in hopes of fostering fellowship as we studied God’s Word together. I ended up spending the study time preventing my son from climbing sky high, getting into people’s desks, and drinking bathroom chemicals. My husband worked long hours, weekends, and sometimes over an hour away. I was more lonely than I was during the Covid lockdown. It seemed like every hope I had for our move was dashed. The depths of disappointment I felt contrasted with the hope of change and led me to wrestle with God through it. Here my head-knowledge intersected with my very real and difficult circumstances. Were my toes digging into a sandy beach as the storm swirled around me or were they resting on the solid rock of the foundation of God’s promises? If everything around me fell down, I knew He would not. As believers, sometimes we suffer pain and loss so deep that we come to a crossroads in our relationship with God and who he is. Some might respond to that pain as though with a finger in his face saying, “How could GOD do this to ME?” Our hearts are hardened. We feel bitter. We struggle to forgive God. And we turn and run FROM him. Others might ask the same question, but with trust in God’s faithfulness to his promises—that he really is who he says he is. “How COULD God do this to me?” In that moment, we run TO Him and His Word. As we wrestle with his Word, we will find rest in the midst of our pain and rock under our feet...

Wrestling With God in Our SufferingChristina Fox2025-01-08T18:35:45+00:00

Aging Graciously in an Anti-Aging Culture

ELIZABETH TURNAGE | CONTRIBUTOR Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life. (Prov. 16:31) Geriatrician Louise Aronson believes there is a “disconnect between the reality of old age and our beliefs about it.”[i] She describes society’s negative view of old age: “to look at old age and see only bodily decline, forgetting that inside the body is a fellow human being.”[ii] Aronson invites us to foster a worldview toward older adults that says: “We still see you, and we still like, love, respect, admire, and are inspired by you, both for who you were and who you are….”[iii] When older adults believe that they are seen, known, and loved, they live fully and graciously as they age. Aronson is not a Christian, and yet, her words challenge Christians to consider what it means to age graciously in an anti-aging culture. To do so, we must consider a biblical view of aging and God’s call to both the young and the old to live all of our days with the hope of glory. A Biblical View of Aging: Normalcy, Losses, and Benefits of Aging In the Bible, aging is assumed: “Aging and dying were considered to be natural, expected, even providential processes that were ordained and guided by God rather than discrete chronological stages of human development.”[iv] Genesis 15:15 states that Abraham would be “buried in a good old age.” Psalm 90:10 proclaims that our lives are fleeting: “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty . . . they are soon gone, and we fly away.” For this reason, we should “number our days” (v. 12), making the most of each one. While the Bible assumes that aging is natural, it doesn’t glamorize it. Ecclesiastes 12 portrays the losses of aging graphically, even dismally. Using poetic language and imagery, the author details many casualties of aging, including weak hands trembling, teeth falling out, eyesight dimming, fears worsening, and mourning and grief increasing (vv. 3, 5). Despite this suffering and loss, aging does have benefits, according to Scripture. For example, it can lead us to anticipate our heavenly dwelling more eagerly: “We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). In the Bible, aging also brings honor—it is an honor to be aged, and the aged are to be honored. The fifth commandment promises that honoring your father and mother leads to a lengthy life (see Ex. 20:12). Members of the church are exhorted to encourage older men and women and to honor widows (see 1 Tim. 5:1–3). Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for failing to care well for their parents (see Mark 7:9–13). According to the Bible, ageism is unacceptable. In a world that urges us to resist aging, we must recapture the biblical view of the subject. As we do so, we will learn how to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom...

Aging Graciously in an Anti-Aging CultureChristina Fox2024-09-12T18:02:50+00:00

Unmarried and In Christ: A Profound (and Sometimes Painful) Mystery Which Points Beyond Itself

ELLEN DYKAS | CONTRIBUTOR I’ve received hundreds of gifts over the years and a handful stand out as markers on my heart and life. Two of these are on my mind today as I write this article. The first came on Mother’s Day over twenty years ago. Libby, a beloved younger sister in Christ, gave me a dozen red roses, thanking me for the way God has used me as a ‘spiritual mother’ in her life. Then, another younger woman, and coworker with me in the trenches of ministry Harvest USA, gave me a wall-hanging with a photograph from WWI, displaying soldiers climbing out of the trenches to engage the battle in front of them. Caitlin, knowing that I’ve gleaned so much from military documentaries (yes, me!), gave me this gift to express appreciation for equipping her for the works of ministry, and for being ‘in the trenches’ with her. Though I’ve not birthed or adopted children to raise and nurture as my own, God has generously given me hundreds of spiritual daughters (and a few sons). These dear ones, and Libby’s gift of roses and Caitlin’s gift from the battlefield of ministry, provide beautiful pictures of the profound mystery embedded in a faithful theology of singleness. Curious? Read on! Wait?! I thought the profound mystery was only about marriage? Ephesians 5:32 continues to shock and discombobulate new students to God’s word. Paul’s words at the conclusion of a key NT passage about God’s design for marriage surely must have prompted some head-scratching, and more than a few exclamations of, “Waaitt…whaaaa?” He wrote, This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32). The mystery Paul referenced is that God’s good gift of marriage is meant to point beyond itself towards the eternal, exclusive, fruitful, mutual loving relationship believers have with our Savior. Husbands and wives receive the good and beautiful gift of marriage and the unique all-of-life oneness (emotionally, sexually, relationally, etc.), while recognizing that marriage is meant to reveal the way Jesus and his people relate to each other for all eternity. Human marriage will, after all, end with this lifetime. ...

Unmarried and In Christ: A Profound (and Sometimes Painful) Mystery Which Points Beyond ItselfChristina Fox2024-06-01T16:58:43+00:00

The Brevity of Life

SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR My mother was known in our family for her pithy statements which were intended to impart wisdom. One of her favorites was “Life is short and then you die.” That may have been a child’s version of a verse from the book of James, “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 4:14). As children we would appeal to mother for sympathy when something earthshattering occurred in our world. Complaints like “My fort fell over,” “My sister hit me,” and “I forgot my lunch money” would be met with those words of wisdom. “Life is short and then you die.” We received little sympathy but learned not to make the same mistakes a second time. During my college years, a neighbor who had already raised her family passed away after a long illness. The woman seemed so old to me. But I recall my mother commenting that her life seemed so short. At our neighbor’s funeral, the pastor talked about life being a dot on a line that extended to eternity. My mother’s words came back to me: “Life is short and then you die.” But this time those words had a broader meaning to me. I had watched our neighbor live her life knowing that she would die sooner than she expected. She used her time to pray for others, to encourage others in their faith, and especially to remind anyone who would listen that life is short and getting right with God was of vital importance. She once asked me if I was living a godly life while I was away at college. Her awareness of impending death made her bold in her conversations with others. She knew life was fragile. She knew life is short and then you die...

The Brevity of LifeChristina Fox2024-04-18T17:05:29+00:00

The Resurrection of Christ: The Hope of Glory and Hope for the Body

ELIZABETH TURNAGE | CONTRIBUTOR A 2017 study revealed that 25 percent of British people who identify as Christians do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus.[i] And yet, as pastor and theologian Stephen Um explains, even atheist scholars find weighty evidence for the resurrection. Um quotes atheist philosopher Anthony Flew: “The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion.”[ii] The resurrection is central to the gospel: if the resurrection didn’t happen, Paul tells the doubting Corinthians, our hope in Christ is pitiable (1 Cor. 15:19). On the first Good Friday long ago, Jesus spent his last breath. To confirm his death, a Roman soldier pierced his side with a spear. Joseph of Arimathea, with the permission of Pilate, took Christ’s body from the cross, wrapped it in a linen shroud, and buried it in his tomb (Mark 15:42–46). Christ’s followers were downcast and depressed the next day—the One they had thought would save them had died. How could it be? The disciples had never fully understood what Christ meant when he said, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day” (Matt. 17:22–23). And then he appeared in a new body, a resurrected body. Many saw him: the women who went to the tomb to finish preparing the body for burial (Mark 16:1). Mary Magdalene, who mistook Jesus for the gardener (John 20:15). Thomas, who at Jesus’s command, touched Jesus’s nail-scarred hands (John 20:24–27). the disciples, who trembled together in a locked room when Jesus suddenly stood among them, greeting them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19)...

The Resurrection of Christ: The Hope of Glory and Hope for the BodyChristina Fox2024-04-01T20:51:42+00:00

A Match (un)Made in Heaven

JAMYE DOERFLER | CONTRIBUTOR I think about heaven a lot. When I’m sad because I’m watching a loved one’s body break down, or because human impact on the environment brings destruction and death, I look to what I know about heaven. In heaven, we will be given new bodies and will inhabit a new earth. One thing will not be made new? Our marriages. The cliché is, “it’s a match made in heaven.” However, in reality, every match made on earth will be unmade in heaven. Consider Jesus’ conversation with the Sadducees in Matthew 22. Marriage Unmade The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection and were trying to make Jesus look foolish, asked a hypothetical question: “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” “But Jesus answered them, ‘You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.’” (Matthew 22:24-30)...

A Match (un)Made in HeavenChristina Fox2024-02-04T20:09:30+00:00

Living and Dying in Hope of Heaven: Preparing for Glory

ELIZABETH TURNAGE|CONTRIBUTOR When I tell people I’ve written a book about preparing for glory, about living and dying in the hope of heaven, I get mixed reactions. Some people wonder why we would need to “prepare” for glory. Others wonder, frankly, if I’m being morbid. Good questions. I’ll just say that I don’t think I’m morbid. If anything, I’m realistic, given that, besides Enoch and Elijah, every person who has ever lived has also died. I’m also optimistic, someone who believes that despite the harsh reality of death, something far far better awaits those who trust in Jesus. Finally, I’m practical, because I’ve seen that a kind, thoughtful, and clear preparation for incapacity and death is one of the most profound gifts we can leave our grieving loved ones. To decide if we really need to prepare for glory, let’s begin by considering what we mean by glory in this context. Glory is a wide and weighty word. It is used throughout Scripture to refer to the glory of the triune God. But throughout Christian history, it has been used as a shorthand for “eternal glory.” I propose this summary of eternal glory: Eternal glory is a place and an age and a state of glory where glory is given to the glorious Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by glorified saints and where the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is enjoyed by glorified saints for all eternity. The apostle Peter sheds more light on eternal glory: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10). According to Peter, eternal glory is that to which we have been called, by “the God of all grace,” “in Christ.” Eternal glory is the future glory “to be revealed in us” after “the sufferings of this present time” (Rom. 8:18). Eternal glory is that for which we and all of creation “groan inwardly” as we “wait eagerly” (Rom. 8:23). Eternal glory is the glory for which the sufferings of this world prepare us. Eternal glory is so weighty that it will one day prove our sufferings to have been as light as a feather (2 Cor. 4:17–18)...

Living and Dying in Hope of Heaven: Preparing for GloryChristina Fox2024-01-28T01:30:46+00:00

Setting Goals with the End in Sight

How did your day begin? If it is anything like mine, it’s filled with good intentions. But just as the day’s momentum begins to build, it’s already 2:30 PM. Soon, the sound of the garage door opening vibrates throughout the home. My daughter’s high-pitched voice greets our golden doodle, and I’m having to answer, “What’s for dinner?” Our good intentions will be just that if it’s not followed up by action. Some time ago, I came across a short video in which author Malcolm Gladwell said, “… knowing my ending makes the beginning super easy … totally clear what I have to do and totally clear what I shouldn’t do.” Gladwell was referring to the process of writing and yet, the principle is transferable to moments when I struggle to account for the six hours between the first sip of freshly brewed coffee and the midday scurry of my dog, greeting the family member who has just walked through the mudroom. Or those days when my to-do list is marked by numerous lines striking through them, but feelings of dissatisfaction overshadow any sense of accomplishment. If I know my ending, then it’s clear what I have to do, and clear what I shouldn’t do. This means I engage each day with the bigger story in sight and have actionable goals that move me toward that end. To help bring clarity when setting goals, here are three questions to consider...

Setting Goals with the End in SightChristina Fox2024-01-12T16:45:47+00:00

Hanging up the Hustle Culture to Embrace Eternal Investment

KAREN HODGE | CONTRIBUTOR Pressure like a grip, grip, grip, and it won't let go, whoa. Pressure like a tick, tick, tick, 'til it's ready to blow, whoa-oh-oh. Give it to your sister and never wonder. If the same pressure would've pulled you under. Who am I if I can't fall or fail? I have a reputation for crying in my popcorn in movie theaters. Sometimes, I cry because of sentimentality, and other times it happens when the truth hits a bit too close to home. While watching the movie, Encanto, the scene where the older sister Luisa sings the lines from Surface Pressure, I cried the tears of a recovering older sister, workaholic, and perfectionist who has bowed to the idol of productivity for over 30 years. In the scene, she is carrying the load of her family, including the embodiment of her woe, on pack mules up a steep hill. Her song laments the insatiable drive to please others and the vacuum of the "not-enough-ness" of human limitations. Maybe you are not crying like me, but instead, you are almost giddy with the potential of productive days ahead in 2024 as you clutch your brand-new bullet journal. Ah, the possibilities seem endless! But whether it is the lines in our journal or the rings closing on our smart watch, we are always searching for ways to measure and account for how we spend our time. Time is an economic affair. Just take a listen to those around you. "There are not enough hours in the day." "I am sick of wasting time." "Let's kill some time." "I am living on borrowed time." "I wish I could turn back the hands of time." By now, optimism may be reduced to realism. We rush from here to there with little regard for rest. We live in a hustle culture— an environment that intensely focuses on productivity, ambition, and success at all costs. The idol of toxic productivity is a cruel taskmaster. If I see my value as being measured by how much I accomplish in each day, then doing will always trump being. Thinking biblically about productivity includes remembering my identity is rooted in the finished work of Jesus Christ on my behalf rather than in finding my worth in how many things I have checked off my to-do list. In this tension, we may tend towards two extremes...

Hanging up the Hustle Culture to Embrace Eternal InvestmentChristina Fox2024-01-02T17:15:32+00:00