On Monday I bought a new Lego set, and is it a beauty. It's a 3 story Parisian restaurant...one that I've had my eye on for a few months now, and with a recent windfall was able to purchase. Now, this set is sitting in my room, unopened. And I'm not sure about when I will open it. I was thinking about this weekend, or maybe saving it until after an upcoming meeting that could leave me in a bad place. Regardless...it's waiting. It's sitting there. I'm so excited to open it and build it, but... But what? I started reflecting on this, curious about why I am holding off opening up this sweet Lego.
I am discovering that I love to anticipate things. I actually prefer to anticipate something than to participate in it, the vast majority of the time. Which is perhaps a strange place to be, or maybe not. I can only speak to my own experiences. I think of times when I receive a text or email from a girl who I like. I have, on occasion, left that message for hours or even days after knowing it has arrived. This allows things to remain as I imagine them, rather than knowing reality. So long as I haven't actually read the missive, it can say whatever I want it to in my mind. My thinking can run wild - not necessarily to a bad place, but just to a place that isn't reality. Or before a big soccer game, I could imagine scoring the game winning goal. After the game that is no longer an option...as long as the thing is in the future, it holds unlimited promise. Oftentimes what I imagine or hope for in an event or item ends up being more than what the experience delivers. Beforehand, there is the possibility (however small) that this could be what fills the longings and aches inside my soul.
This leads me to consider the eternal truth that is standing right before me.1 Peter 2:11 reads, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul." So, we are sojourners and exiles on this world - we don't belong. Philippians 3:20 fleshes that out further by telling us that "our citizenship is in heaven." And Romans 8:23 reminds us that we are waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons. The whole Bible points towards a waiting for God to return and set everything back to how they should be. So, as Christians, we should absolutely be people who are anticipators. First Corinthians 15:19 speaks directly to this - "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." We are looking ahead, beyond what this world has to offer.
I am not sure if you follow my train of thought, but these things lead me to a couple of inescapable conclusions. First, we, as humans, are made to anticipate. Second, anticipating earthly things isn't much fun, because in the back of my mind is always the knowledge that my levels of anticipation are higher than the payout will actually be. I am brought to Jeremiah 2:13 which says, "for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." While I don't think that practicing delayed gratification is a bad thing (I actually think that it is an important spiritual discipline), I think a problem can be reached when the delaying is merely trying to synthesize a longing that should be strongly present in believers. I think that we are made to anticipate, and to (at least in some sense) enjoy anticipating, but that the best thing for us to anticipate is Jesus' return to set everything right. And so with that in mind, the Lego set is going to set for at least a couple more days, but the opening and building of it is not where my mind is going to be set. My mind is going to be set Christ, the author and perfecter of my faith, in whom my anticipation will not fall short in its consummation, as it does everywhere else.
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