“I don’t believe in God anymore,” a friend recently told me. He went on to say, “There is a great life to be lived by just enjoying myself and the last thing I care about is what happens when I die.” He sold the gig well; as this utopian lifestyle sounds pretty alluring.

This mentality goes to show that what I believe about eternity is one of the most important factors in how I view life. In light of all eternity, how should I look at any suffering that may come my way? Adhering to hedonism can be great until it all falls down like a house of cards. This belief that pleasure and entertainment are the sole purpose of our being can have dire effects when circumstances change. For example, I recently read about a guy with the same injury as me who asked to be taken off his ventilator because he didn’t feel like life was worth living in a state of paralysis. Initially I was shocked. Even in a bleak situation, there could be so much potential. So much life left to be lived. There was still hope for the future.

However, I have come to realize that if I didn’t believe differently about my life’s purpose and what happens after I die, I may have made the same decision. If comfort and pleasure is the ultimate goal, I guess considering my circumstances I drew the short straw and now therefore am out of luck. If Jesus isn’t real, if there is no life after death, if there is no hope for ultimate healing, if there is no bigger purpose beyond comfort and pleasure, then yes, I would be best off conceding and be perfectly content to bid farewell to this earth. I’d give the worms a head start on my corpse as I entered an eternity of nothingness.

2000 years ago, the apostle Paul wrote that today’s sufferings are not worth being compared to the joy that awaits those who follow Jesus. Because I deeply believe I’m going to spend millions of years in the presence of God with no suffering, why should I spend all my energy on making my time here on earth more comfortable if God has a better way to use it? I don’t mean to imply that it’s easy. Life is hard. Sickness. Pain. Abuse. Betrayal. Death. There is no amount of money, pleasure, or enticement that this world offers that will ever mask that reality.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from my skeptical friend’s view, a few people around me have had a knack for pushing the ideology that the here and now doesn’t really matter much. “Hey Ryan, it may be rough physically right now. But don’t worry…You’ll get a new body in heaven!” I’m not saying I disagree. I am aware that followers of Jesus will get new perfect bodies in the life that is to come. However, sweeping current suffering under the rug and covering it up with a cliché statement about heaven doesn’t necessarily make things any easier. That’s why keeping an eternal perspective and recognizing that my time on this earth affects the life that is to come is imperative in the midst of suffering.

In fact, thinking with an eternal perspective should affect every aspect of my life, not just how I view suffering. It should affect how I spend my time, how I view relationships, and how I will prioritize my life. What am I doing today that will matter in 100 years? What about 1000?

I may be tempted to get fixated on only worrying about the here and now but I need to continue to remind myself that eternity is at stake. I often refer back to this video illustration of our time on earth to keep me reminded to focus on what matters in the long term:

To put it plainly, I wasn’t created to find full satisfaction in this life. CS Lewis says it best, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

In the meantime, I want to live with a healthy understanding that my life on earth has purpose no matter what circumstances I may find myself in; yet pales in comparison to all of eternity. Doing so will enable me to keep my eyes on what’s ahead and passionately cross the finish line of this life.

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