Living an Eternal Life

A few weeks ago I was just casually browsing through some different blogs that I follow. One of the blogs was talking about Bible reading and was encouraging readers to pick one of the four Gospels and read it through in one sitting. In this day and age when it seems like we are always in a hurry, the blog's author realized that challenge might be hard for some people to accept. So he made the following statement:

"You are an eternal being - start living like it."

Let's think about what that really means. I am two different people in a manner of speaking, an inner man and an outer man. For the sake of this conversation, let's refer to these two people as the Inner Life and the Outer Life.

Now the Outer Life is temporary and is going to end at some point. This life is lived in a body that is dying. But while it's alive, this life is interested in things that can make its existence more enjoyable - it loves good food, spending time with family and friends, playing sports, going fishing - a multitude of activities that seem to make this life fulfilling. But in the end, it's all temporary and will fade away. Nothing we can do or attain or accomplish with this Outer Life is permanent. A hundred years from now I doubt anyone will even know this life existed. The Scriptures describe this Outer Life this way:

You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. - James 4:14

But the Inner Life is different. It is not a body but an eternal spirit that will never die. The Scriptures refer to the Inner Life this way:

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

What's different about this Inner Life is this - everything you do to it, everything you do for it and everything you accomplish with it does not fade away. When you feed it or exercise it, those changes are permanent and eternal. So here's the question:

Which life are you living?

Do you make your plans and decisions based on the Outer Life, the one that is a vapor and here but for a moment? Or is the direction of your life guided by the Inner Life, the one that is permanent and eternal? When the blog's author challenges us to "live like an eternal being", he is asking us to realize that not only do we have all the time in the world, we have all the time in this world and beyond! In that light, shouldn't we be putting our time and resources into the Inner Life? Shouldn't we be living the eternal life?