Have you heard the “train of life” analogy for our time on earth? It’s pretty interesting, as far as it goes. 

In a nutshell, it says that we board the train of life at birth, where we meet our parents. We think we’ll always be with them, but in the usual course of events, they disembark along the way. In the meantime, others climb on board – siblings, spouses, children, friends, colleagues. Some of these folks depart, too, leaving a permanent vacuum in our journeys. 

Our rides are full of joys, sorrows, hellos and farewells, the analogy says. So far so good, don’t you think?

But then it falls apart in ways large and small. For instance, the last version I saw added “fantasy” and “expectations” to this short list of life’s components; whoever wrote it certainly has a peculiar idea of what life is all about.

Worse, observing that we don’t know when our journeys will end, this version concludes thusly: “So, we must live in the best way, love, forgive and offer the best of who we are. It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step down … we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel …”

So that’s what life is all about, according to whoever wrote this? To leave behind beautiful memories for those who knew us? 

This is apparently becoming a prominent worldview these days: Either there’s ultimately no purpose to life, no afterlife or hope of eternal life – or if these things do exist at all, they’re lurking somewhere in the “impossible to know” realm. 

Still, I think the “train of life” is an analogy we can rescue: Adding, for example, that if we devote ourselves to our relationship with the Conductor rather than with the other passengers … if we concern ourselves with repenting of our failures to live according to His itinerary, and trust Him to have paid the penalty for those failures – why, then we can sit back and enjoy the ride, because He has promised that our last stop will be heaven and eternal joy. 

Eternal joy, as in "happily ever after."  

Just one more thing: we must not forget to tell the other passengers about this Conductor and His perfect destination, or to persuade them to trust in Him themselves. After all, we don’t want even the most unpleasant of them to get off at the wrong station. 

The Bible is packed with passages both pithy and profound on just about every subject imaginable. Jesus Himself had astonishing things to say about everything that’s important in this life.
         
He spoke about the material, for instance: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)  
         
He spoke of God the Father’s overarching love for the humans that He created in His image. “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31)
         
And He defined love in a way that raises eyebrows in an anti-authoritarian culture like ours. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14-15)
         
It would be quite a challenge to narrow a list of Jesus’ most astounding sayings down to even a few dozen. But I think perhaps my favorites are His paradoxes – those statements that sound self-contradictory at first, but serve to underscore how His worldview is the polar opposite of mankind’s.
         
Just a couple of examples: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39)
         
And “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." (John 11:25-26)
         
In some ways, the believer’s life is full of paradoxes. As the late pastor and author A. W. Tozer said, “A real Christian is an odd number. He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen; talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see; expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another; empties himself in order to be filled; admits he is wrong so he can be declared right; goes down in order to get up; is strongest when he is weakest; richest when he is poorest and happiest when he feels the worst. He dies so he can live; forsakes in order to have; gives away so he can keep; sees the invisible; hears the inaudible; and knows that which passes knowledge.”
 
Does this describe the Christ-follower you aspire to be? If not, it might be worth your while to spend a little time meditating on another seemingly paradoxical quote from Jesus (Matthew 7:21-23):
 
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'”
 
To prevent us from dismissing this warning as irrelevant to our own fine Christian lives, Jesus went on to highlight the importance of explicitly obeying Him (verses 24-27):
 
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them,” He said, “I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."
 
Of course, obeying Christ presupposes that we know His commands. And this can be achieved only by studying His word to gain not just knowledge, but also wisdom and understanding – that is, learning how and why to apply our Spirit-imparted knowledge to our daily lives. There’s nothing paradoxical about that! 

Perhaps you’ve noticed: A celebrity contracts XYZ disease, or loses a loved one to it, and here comes the pitch for battling it. “Let’s conquer XYZ in our lifetimes so that no one else has suffer!” You can even see it in the daily obituaries, where survivors of the less-than-famous request, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations to XYZ research.
 
The good Lord knows there are all kinds of horrible diseases to take us out. I’ve personally lost family and friends to everything from heart disease to breast, colorectal, kidney and ovarian cancer, from MS and lupus to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. You probably have, too. So which of these killers should we fight with all our hearts, souls, minds and, most importantly, money?
 
Here’s the problem. Even if we were to succeed in wiping out all these diseases, its victims would ultimately die of something else – because it’s death that’s our enemy, not the means of death. In fact, sooner or later, we are all going to die of something, leaving these earthly bodies behind to spend eternity in heaven or hell. What sense does it make to pour our time and money into fighting earth’s inevitable end, while virtually ignoring the reality of eternity?
 
Fortunately, there’s a solution: experiencing death as the doorway to everlasting joy in heaven. We need simply repent of what God says is sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to have paid our sin penalty on the cross. (Not that it’s easy; as Jesus is quoted as saying in Luke 9:23, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” But it is simple.)
 
You say you don’t believe this? You hold to some other scenario, such as “we cease to exist upon death” or “everyone goes to heaven except for Hitler” or “no one can possibly know what happens after death”?
 
But what if you’re wrong? Considering that we’re talking about eternity, don’t you think it might conceivably be worth investigating the subject as ardently as you plan your next week-long vacation? I beg you to do so before it’s too late; the Lord has promised that you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart (see, e.g., Jeremiah 29:13).  
 
If you’re already a born-again believer, great! I look forward to seeing you here, There or in the air. In the meantime, how about reserving your charitable contributions for efforts that are making a difference for all eternity?