Closer to Heaven but further from God?

PODCAST: https://overflowinghopewithdrjamesdallen.buzzsprout.com/

I woke up one morning to a cloudy soaking rain kinda day.  One of those days in the Midwest Fall that you just want to crawl back under the covers and stay.  A day you want to chalk it up for zero, nada, zip, just get it over with kinda day.  As I lay there, I started thinking about life and death issues.  Great for a rainy day, right?!  I asked myself===Are you closer to Heaven, yet further from God?  Being a retired pastor and over 70, I know I am in the fourth quarter.  I am closer to leaving this planet than I ever have been before.  I guess all of us are.

As I draw closer to that day, am I getting closer to God?  When I was a young preacher, I used to joke and say:  The older folks read their Bibles more because they are cramming for the finals.  Now, I am one of those folks.  I don’t feel closer to God today; I do fill further away.

In my prime, I was preparing sermons, was in committee meetings, counseling young couples, and dealing with all kinds of life and death issues.  Each day was filled with the unexpected.  Being a pastor of a large congregation may look great from the outside, but it is a stressful assignment.  I was busy.  Very busy.

Even after leaving the pastorate, I worked in church construction, then a seminary, and finally personal consulting, but nothing compares to my years as a pastor. There is nothing better in life than to have the privilege of pastor in the lives of so many.

Determining how close one is to God is strange, isn’t it?   I mean, it is like humility.  If we hunger for humility, we may be proud when we get it. Indeed, once we think we are humble, we have lost it.   It is an irony.  It is like Sisyphus of Greek Mythology, who was doomed to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to get near the top, and the boulder would roll back.  And so it was for Sisyphus his assignment for eternity. We struggle to make it to the top, only to see it fall again.

But we are not dealing with mythology but with the truth.  We are called to be godly, to grow in Christ. I fear that what I mistook for godliness as a pastor was busyness—being busy with the things of God and equating that with being closer to God. (I will say that God blessed us with true revival for an extended period, and God seemed very close.) Once those assignments were lifted, there was a feeling of loss, even at times of uselessness.  The busyness had become entwined with my relationship with God.  

When my best friend Forrest was dying, and he knew he had little time, the number one subject on his mind was what heaven would be like.  We would even debate it. He was not concerned about making heaven.  Why?  Because Jesus Christ had made way for him, he counted on Christ, not himself.  Christ assured his place in Heaven; he was becoming fascinated by the place of heaven!

 Is this the key to godliness—to understand we must count on Christ for everything…for we are nothing without Him? I think the truth lies in there.  The fruit of the Spirit grows!  It does not spring up overnight like mushrooms.  It grows. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.   Though one may impart busyness to one or all of these, they are not busy words!  They are words of position and depth.

They may not all grow at the same time or level, but they grow in our lives.  Not because of much effort, I can’t train myself to have more joy or peace or love, not true joy, peace, and love, but because we position ourselves in His presence.  For it is the Spirit that inspires and grows all of this fruit.

Perhaps being closer to heaven and closer to God is coming to the full realization that we can do nothing without Christ. Maybe that feeling on a cloudy, rainy day, when you want to slip down under the covers and stay, and you ask yourself—Are you closer to Heaven and further from God—you can now respond:  I am closer to Heaven and God, for all that I am, all that I ever will be, and all that lies ahead for eternity is due to my Savior Jesus Christ.  I started writing this podcast not knowing where it would take me—I am happy, and hope you are too, that it has brought us back to Jesus.  Only in Him am I ready for Heaven.  Only in Him can I boast.  Only in Him can I say—best friend, loved ones, I will see you in heaven.  

My God bless you!