So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18
In my “former life,” I was a cosmetologist and worked at a salon. One of my male clients was a contractor; he had his own small contracting business and did both small jobs and large ones, such as building new houses. He was nice but he was not a big people person. He lived and worked in an area where people tended to be a little … high maintenance, shall we say.
As I was cutting his hair one day, we were talking and he was telling me about a particularly ridiculous situation that he had to take care of earlier that week—it seemed to him that the woman was being extremely nit-picky. He concluded his story by saying, “I wanted to tell her that it is just a stupid house! You eat there and you sleep there. It is not worth all this fuss!” I think I actually laughed out loud when he said that!
If you’ve been with me for any length of time, you know I care about the house that I live in and I want it to be nice. I currently have a house cleaning business for my day job which offers me the opportunity to help others keep their homes nice and in a comfortable condition in which to entertain and relax. We take pride in our homes; we go to great lengths to make it reflect us and our own specific tastes, our own private retreat, and our homes are very important to us. But—. There are still times when I find myself getting all hung up on the details of a project in my house, or I find myself dwelling too long on something that has absolutely no importance in the grand scheme of things that I find myself repeating this man’s words, “It is just a stupid house. I eat there. And I sleep there.” There are bigger things to dwell on in life. We can so easily get hung up on the minutiae of life that we start missing the big picture. We forget that while earthly things (like a house) do matter in this life, it won’t matter one bit in eternity.
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2 NIV. I don’t know about you but that verse is a little more convicting than I would like for it to be. I can think of lots of things that I give way more energy and time to than they ever deserve. The new kitchen table won’t matter in eternity but the relationships built around that table will. Are we spending time exemplifying Christ? Are we investing time and energy building relationships with people, sharing the Good News? People are what matter and not the things of this earth.
Certainly the things of this earth are a blessing and we should be thankful and be good stewards. The condition in which we live will affect how we feel on this earth and you will never hear me say that it doesn’t matter. But, when we focus too much on the details of this life we miss the big picture. Eternity is what this life is really all about.