Trials and Pain: Long Eternity to Enjoy Ourselves

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.... And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.—1 John 2:15,17

Any appeal to the public in the name of Christ that rises no higher than an invitation to tranquillity must be recognized as mere humanism with a few words of Jesus thrown in to make it appear Christian....

Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name. He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster. He calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern civilization affords. He calls them to self-abnegation and death; we call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac. He calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers....

We can afford to suffer now; we'll have a long eternity to enjoy ourselves. And our enjoyment will be valid and pure, for it will come in the right way at the right time. Born After Midnight, pp. 141-142

"Lord, may I be faithful to call people to that which is important to You, at whatever cost. Thank You that 'we can afford to suffer now; we'll have a long eternity to enjoy ourselves.' Amen."