Now take it a step further. In your imagination (or it might be helpful for you to do this in real life), take a pad of self-adhesive notes and write “TEMPORARY” on each one. Walk around and distribute them everywhere you need to be reminded. Put one on your car. Put one on the front door of your house. Put TEMPORARY stickers on each piece of furniture. Put one on the front of your checkbook. Stick them on all the clothes in your closet. Put them on your iPod and on the TV and the treadmill and the barbeque.
Then take another set of self-adhesive notes and write “ETERNAL.” Put them on your family. Put them on your friends. Put one on your boss. Put one on the stranger behind the counter. Put one on the person you most dislike in the world. Don’t forget to put one on your forehead as well.
For the stuff in our lives is only temporary. The day is coming when all our 401 (k)s and our bank statements will be irrelevant. The titles on our resumes will no longer impress anyone. GPAs and SAT scores and college acceptance letters will be long-forgotten. No one will know what clothes hung in our closets or what cars sat in our garages.
All that will be left is love. That which was done out of love for God will last. Every human being you see is a cleverly disguised receptacle of eternity. You can take the love with you. The object of life is to be rich toward God.
John Ortberg, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box
(Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI: 2007), 31-32.
