Don't Look Back

When God pulled Lot and his family out of Sodom, He told them, "Don't look back" (Gen 19:17). Lot's wife did. That didn't end well for her (Gen 19:26). Jesus warned, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). And that's not a good thing, either. "So what?" you might ask. "What has that to do with me?"

It is interesting and, frankly, a little baffling to me how so many Christians think about heaven. I was listening recently to a song by Downhere called My Last Amen. The singer talks about feeling something he had never felt but was sure was there or looking for a note in a song that was never there, likening it to the dawn that follows the night. What is that thing that he longs for that he never had seen or felt yet?

Every prayer I say (a little closer)
To my resting place (a little closer)
Where my final breath
is the beginning
To never needing
And I will find my last Amen.

He's talking about going home, to being with Christ, to never needing again.

I could swear I have two hearts
One to stay, one to depart
This sad, tragic kingdom

And it burns me down to the core
Because I know there's so much more
It's just a pale reflection
And it keeps me wanting
That mysterious thing
Like an outcast waiting to belong.

This is Paul's kind of language. "To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil 1:21). It is a yearning to both be here, sure, but to also be there with Christ in eternal bliss.

Christians know this. So why is it that we don't feel that way? Why is it that so many Christians are not at all keen on the idea of going home? I've heard them respond with revulsion or confusion. "You want to die?" I've heard them say, "I'm not sure I want to go to heaven. Seems like it will be boring sitting around on clouds and playing harps." One lady told me, "If my dog's not there, I don't want to go." And I'm confused. "Don't want to go"? What is that all about?

I think we've lost the sense of the heaven described in the Bible. I'm sure that's true. We've bought this "wings" and "angels" and "harps" and "clouds" without a single reason. But I'm quite sure that you know where to find better information than that. I don't think our primary problem is lousy information. I think our underlying problem is the same as Lot's wife or that guy who wasn't fit for the kingdom of God; we're looking back. "Yeah, yeah, heaven's great and all that ... but look what I have here! Stuff. Loved ones. Friends." The reason some of us want heaven is that all that talk about "no more tears" sounds really good when we've endured too many tears here. Some of us want heaven because that "eternal bliss" sounds just fine with us. But how many of us want heaven because "That's where my Jesus is"? How many of us are so focused on the end game, that final "marriage of the Lamb" where we are ultimately and finally united with Christ for an eternity of worship that we see staying here as a necessary delay of the best? Scripture tells us that this is the purpose for which we are built (Rom 11:36; Col 1:16). The completion of our lives occurs there in His presence. But we look back.

There is no other term for it. It's called "idolatry." It is placing something else -- and we can do it with almost anything at all -- before our Lord and Savior. That's why Jesus said that the one who looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. What about us? What about you? Do you find your heart more closely bound to here and now or do you, like the song, find it aiming toward something you can't even fully explain, that final Amen in His presence? Don't look back. That won't end well for you.