Eternity

[Anonymous316]

As many people do, when I start to think about spending eternity with Jesus I start to get a little scared. I cannot wait to live and praise Him every day, and to live in a perfect world with Him, but the thought of going on forever with no end makes me nauseous. I'm terrified to just go on forever, but I'm more terrified of things just ending and me never being anything again. How do I cope with this? I make myself physically sick thinking about this. I've been a Christian for awhile now, but I still get terrified of being alive forever. Any help is appreciated!

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[Tolworth John]

How will you be aware of the passing of time in a timeless eternity?
God is often described as being 'outside' time, if that is correct you will not be aware of time passing so your fears are groundless.

 

[Hidden In Him]

I start to think about spending eternity with Jesus I start to get a little scared. I cannot wait to live and praise Him every day, and to live in a perfect world with Him, but the thought of going on forever with no end makes me nauseous.

What? <smiling> Why does it make you nauseous?

I make myself physically sick thinking about this. I've been a Christian for awhile now, but I still get terrified of being alive forever.

Wow. This is a new one. What events in your current life make you terrified of living forever?

 

[Take Heart]

The promise that there will be no pain, tears, sorrow..makes me feel at peace about living for eternity with Jesus. We will also be in our new glorified bodies which I assume will be stronger, healthy, and no decay. You don't need to be scared or anxious about eternity. I don't think we'll even be aware of it. We'll just be happy and content that we're with Jesus. If there is no pain or sorrow in the next life, then that likely means we'll be in constant joy, peace, contentment, awe, wonder. That's something to look forward to : )

 

[thehehe]

This is exactly the kind of thoughts that I usually have, and so I can relate - me neither, I am not sure I really want to live eternally. From a down on earth point of view, it will end up being boring, too much. It is actually quite interesting in itself: as humans beings, we have a limited conception of life, as everything must have an end to get value or any sense. For me, living forever is both pointless and senseless, unless from my rational, pragmatic mind.
Now, I guess "eternal life" is pretty different from what we actually call life. It would be something new, and perhaps even ourselves would be something new.
Death could be an ending or something else, but in both cases it will be something greater than us: yes, I agree, this is quite terrifying; but it is also a release to me. There will be a moment when we will have to let us go, to finally abandon ourselves: also a great proof of humility. Anyway, God will do what He will do, and we have to accept that. To be philosophic, we will see what will happen. So now, I come to see eternal life as a gift, even if I don't understand how or even why.

 

[PKFox]

I believe that when we get to Heaven, we will be so focused on God that we won't even think about living forever. It will be a whole new kind of living. Just the Lord and his followers, without the sin, pain, and struggles we go through in this life. Personally, I can hardly wait, and I find that it helps to live for God to the best of my abilities now, so that when I get to Heaven, I'll know that I did my best for God in this life even though I'm still a sinner and even though Heaven is incomprehensible right now.

 

[GandalfTheWise]

Humanity was created to be in a nice wooded place full of friendly animals where God came for walks to visit and talk. It's interesting that at the end of Revelation the New Jerusalem is on a new earth, not in heaven per se. Also, Jesus in His glorified body had a meal with the disciples. My sense is a more biblical view is that humans were created to walk with God on the earth, not to join ranks of angels in heaven as portrayed in various visions in Revelation.

Perhaps I'm not being spiritual enough here, but I figure eternal "worship" will be more spontaneous like "wow, is that so cool! did you see what God just did!" and talking about it for awhile, and then getting back to the business of living until He springs the next cool surprise on us. I guess I read God bringing the animals to Adam to see what he'd name them a long series of fun surprises. "Whoa, look at the nose on that one. And he drinks from it!?! and can pick up little pieces of grass, I'm going to call him, Snooty."

I always figured eternal life would include a series of unending changes, surprises, on-going growth, and seeing and doing new things with Jesus alongside enjoying it too. I guess my view is somewhat shaped by Jesus' interaction with his disciples being a dozen guys going boating, fishing, camping, planning God's kingdom, etc. I also wonder if it will be a bit more like how a child views life, it just sort of happens as it happens, rather than our more adult calendar-driven outlook where we are aware of our mortality.

Obviously, just a bunch of conjectures in this post. Eternal life may have as much bearing to the current life as an oak tree does to an acorn. However, I sometimes wonder if we over-spiritualize eternal life as becoming like angels and then living around the throne going from one hymn to the next.