Have you ever planned for a vacation that you couldn’t wait to begin? You were so excited that you could hardly think about anything else. You had all the details in place – reservations made, and confirmations for traveling, and all accommodations in place. But it was NOT the vacation you hoped for. There were delays at the airport, or your vehicle broke down. You got sick. The accommodations were less than stellar. The people who waited on you at the restaurants were not friendly, etc.
You found yourself yearning to go home. You wanted this horrid vacation to end early.
That is how I’m coming to view life on this side of eternity – a bad vacation.
Far too often I realize that I desire the pleasures that will only happen when we get to heaven.
I want a stress-free life.
I want people to be friendly.
I want everything to work well, without any hitches.
I want the sinless heaven now.
But God will bring about that life when He is ready. He knows what He is doing. His timing is always perfect.
In the meantime, God has allowed people (you, me and everyone else) to make sinful choices. With our sinful choices come consequences. Those consequences are unpleasant.
But God has planned an amazing eternal existence for everyone who accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior. It will center around pure, undiluted worship of our great God. For all eternity it will be an experience better than anything we can even begin to imagine in this life.
Does that mean that this life is all bad? Absolutely not!
John 15:11 states: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Experiencing the joy of Jesus takes away the unpleasantness of this life.
There are times that the goodness of God is so evident to me in the midst of my struggles that I find myself in tears. They are tears of joy, not sorrow, because I am touched by our great God.
Because God refreshes my spirit, I can face the challenges of this “bad vacation”, and let go of the grumbling. He helps me make lemonade out of the lemons!
This life is about serving Jesus in the midst of a sin laden world. When we keep our eyes focused on Jesus, He does something miraculous in our hearts and minds. He makes us aware of His presence in us, because His Holy Spirit indwells everyone who worships Jesus.
We must accept the truth that this is a life of challenges and hardships. Some of those challenges are due to our sin laden world, while others are because we stand for Christ and serve him diligently in this sin laden world. Whatever the situation, we must maintain hearts of compassion and forgiveness, mercy and grace, while standing for what is just and righteous. With God, this is possible.
It is like we are sitting on the banks of the river of life, waiting to step into glory, but we are not there yet. It is coming. It will be awesome to worship and serve Jesus without anyone’s sin, including our own. We maintain our focus on that beautiful river, pointing to Jesus.
We begin our experience of the life to come by worshiping and exalting Jesus now. Through our service to Him, we can enjoy some of the things of this world.
But God warns us to be cautious, because we have an enemy prowling around wanting to devour us. 1 Peter 5:8: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Peter continues in 1 Peter 5:9: “Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 1 Peter 4:13states: “But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”
The great life is coming, soon!
Let’s be careful to not try to get ahead of God in our desire for that everlasting life with Jesus as our Bridegroom. It’s not an easy journey, but God makes it possible.
God’s people are all on the same bad vacation! Take heart, Jesus has the best yet to come!!
Do you want to talk about living for Jesus in this sin-laden world? You can reach me at: ButGodCares@gmail.com.
Living for Jesus, Donna
P.S. If this has helped you, please share it with others!
Note: If the verses for Bible references do not appear when you hover over them, go directly to the website, and they should appear for you. Also, please remember to look at the full context of the verses by reading the complete passage.
Copyright 2025 Donna Shappy All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – without the prior permission of the author.