Upside-down

When starting a new job, I always have some kind of expectation of what it will be like. And I'm almost always surprised by what it actually turns out to be. My current job working with disabled adults, mostly those suffering from mental health issues has surprised me in many ways, but none so much as the immense faith the majority of them have in God. Everyday I am surrounded by 200+ people who have very little materially, mentally, physically...most were born with an organic brain disorder and despised and ridiculed throughout their lives for being born different, when being different was out of their control. Most people look at them and think that they're better off. They look better, they speak better, they have better jobs and abilities. My clients aspire to such things as being a janitor, dishwasher, factory assembly person, or just even obtain a job, as that alone is a big step for them. For some, that's even too difficult for them, and they share about praying to God that he will help them remember to take showers or use a toaster oven. But as I spend more time with them, I realize that these who know so little of the world, have so much by knowing God.

My current church has been emphasizing the hope Christians have in life after death in New Jerusalem. I used to fear Heaven, imagining it as a place with gold paved roads, mansions, and tons of fluffy clouds...where we would sit around, sing hymns, and strung harps. And really, the thought of that made me scared. But as I learn about a more accurate view of Heaven, I get excited, knowing that the good we experience on Earth is only a dim foreshadowing of the greatness we will encounter in Heaven.

C.S. Lewis wrote:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. "

It's easy to forget that I walk amongst possible gods and goddesses. But it's exciting to me that one day those Christians at the bottom of the social totem pole will live eternally alongside with the King. It truly is an upside-down kingdom.