Are You Going to Ascend, Transcend, Or Just End?

Have you found something to live for? A reason to get out of bed every morning? What lights up your eyes? Do you have a purpose for being here? Or are you just going through the motions waiting to die? And what about an afterlife? Are you going to ascend, transcend, or just end?

I had this discussion recently with someone I love. I said "You had better find a reason for living!" (Otherwise you will tailspin back into depression and addiction, I thought.) Most cultures have believed in someone or something bigger than themselves. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans had many gods. They also believed in an afterlife. The America Indian believed in a Great Spirit and some tribes believe in magic and even demons. Is there a spirit world? What is it in us that longs for more. CS Lewis wrote "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."

These are questions honest people ask. I have wrestled with these questions a lot in my adult life. The bottom line, I choose to believe in heaven and that God has made a way for me to get there through Jesus. I have a Creator who made me with relationship in mind and that He created this beautiful world for me to enjoy. Not just survive and then die.

This hope is what keeps me getting out of bed every morning. I have a song in my heart because the living God loves me. Sure things aren't always great, but I believe He is good all the time. Even when life is difficult I know my Father cares. He whispers His love to me through nature, the Bible and those I love.   find great comfort in that. But it is a choice. My choice. It gives my life meaning and hope. I don't always feel Him. I choose to believe by faith which fills me with hope and gives me the desire to love. I'm not trying to preach at you but if you are struggling with meaning in your life what are you living for? anything? Make a choice.

As Joshua said Choose this day whom you shall serve….we are all serving someone or something….

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Col. 1:16

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Col. 1:27

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His

power. Heb. 1: 1-4