Heaven is way better, Kenny

i saw a video over the weekend by Kenny Chesney (the country artist) called "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven."

let me first say that i LOVED the rhythm of the song. it had a reggae sway to with along with the country twang. i'm not even a fan of country, but the song made me wanna dance :-)

plus, the video was set in Jamaica i think, and was just a very touching scene.

but the lyrics got me thinking. hard.

in the song, he's basically describing a conversation between a preacher and a church-goer in which the preacher asks something along the lines of, "don't you want to go to Heaven some day?" (i'm totally paraphrasing but feel free to get the gist anyway).

and his response is pretty much, "sure, everyone wants to go to Heaven. and i hope that one day God puts my name on His list. but i'm not ready to go right now because i'm having way too much fun down here. so God, if You hear me, don't call me home anytime soon because i'm not ready to leave this Earth just yet." (again, absolutely paraphrasing but that's pretty much what he was saying in a nutshell).

i have a feeling that a lot of people think this way. truth is, i've thought this way at times in my life. that life is just too much fun, too good and there's no way i'd want to die right now, not before i finish doing all this awesome fun stuff on Earth.

but that way of thinking just show a lack of knowledge of how awesome Heaven is. you could get married, have a baby, win 20 billion dollars, have a blow-out party, travel around the world, and have the best sex of your life all in the same day....

...and all that pleasure won't equal a fraction of the joy in Heaven.

seriously.

i have to remind myself of this constantly because i easily get caught up in the right heres and the right nows of Earth life. but we have to remember that we didn't come here to stay. death for those of us who are in Christ is not the end. it's the beginning. the beginning of the greatest life there is. an eternal life with our Lord.

death isn't final for those of us saved by His grace. it seems that way because once someone is gone, they really are gone. and we feel that loss....badly! and painfully! and it can be scary to think about.