“Something” is an interesting term. It normally denotes a thing of substance; perhaps a fixed item. Something has a realness to it. There is matter in something. When I am asked to give, it feels good to know that I have something to offer. When I am asked to meet with someone, I am happy to report to them that I have some time to be together. Something might also represent a position to defend; a debate with content. There are so many things that attend to this “Something” subject.
But “Nothing” is not “Something.”
Nothing has no foundation or substance. It carries no weight; no points to argue or validity. It’s just… well, nothing. I’ve found that much of what I thought was Something turned out to be Nothing. We often make those miscalculations in life. We think temporal things are so important, when in reality they amount to very little. Stress rises in our minds, fear gripping our hearts as we deem the insignificant to be critical until we realize how insignificant it was. Our Something turns out to be Nothing. Some people think they cannot live without some item, but they live.
My best explanation is to compare or consider what really matters in life to all these other things and then work backwards. Thus, I must begin with Eternity. Heaven and Hell. Whatever will lead you to Heaven or Hell should be front and center. When the Lord returns and the Trumpet of God sounds, I wonder how much all these things in this life will matter. People tend to spend energy on fleeting emotions; passions, anger, grievances, sports teams, politics, etc. Some spend their time pursuing money or ambition. There are a myriad of things we might see as important that are far less crucial juxtaposed against Eternity.
Consider this: You are going to spend forever somewhere. Your soul is being weighed in the balance everyday you live. So if you are offered anything that leads you away from Heaven, then that thing is Nothing. No matter how good it looks, it is not worth your eternal soul. There is no job or amount of money worth your salvation. There are no offenses that you have suffered worth your eternity. Heaven and Hell are too important to ignore. Worshiping the Lord is high on that list of Something. A personal time of prayer and Bible reading is up there. Church involvement and
serving in the Kingdom ranks as a matter of importance. These are the things that really matter. We cannot allow the Nothings of this life to become Something, only to find out too late, that they were not what we thought them to be.
Pastor Jeffrey Harpole