The true hope

Tonight the director of my community orchestra told us that funding for our organization is being cut by the private high school that sponsors us.  I've been feeling annoyed recently by the bad economy. Annoyed is the right word because it has not affected my life yet. The forecasts show that I could be affected very soon, though.  

Being a musician or music teacher is definitely one of the less secure professions.  I've been unemployed once in my life and I never want to have that feeling again. I try to think of what measures I could take against that ever happening to me again.  Nursing school?  I don't know...

But I realized when I was listening to a sermon tonight, though, that that feeling of security that I crave is no less God-less than a pagan pursuing the American dream.  I want my life in the here and now to be neatly tied up and I want to be able to present it to others as a resume complete with a good education, achievements, and a comfortable lifestyle.

But the apostle Paul asks us keep our mind and thoughts elsewhere.  

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you... in this you rejoice, though for now for a little while, if necessary you have been grieved by various trials...  

(Read the entire passage here.)

This life is "a little while", and my focus should on what I'm going to get in heaven.  Thank you, Lord, if my world here gets a little tenuous and forces me to remember eternity.