Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I ask the question, “what does eternity mean” and I do so from my status as a Christian.

So, that means, for me and other Christians, there is life after death.  Not just life, but life with God who created us.  Eternity.  Forever.  Never ending.

Still, when I have tried, as a human being, to grasp eternity, I have found it is not possible.

I usually think in terms with an end – a decade, a year, a month, a day, an hour, a minute, or a second.  I am not able to contemplate something that never ends.  Never.

One day last year, after I played a round of golf at my home club near where I live in Salem, Oregon, I sat in my golf cart and, for an hour or so, tried to wrap my mind around eternity.  I could not do so.  My mind became unraveled.

At the risk of going too low, here is what Mr. Google said about eternity:

“In Christianity, eternity means a life without end, a state beyond earthly time, characterized by either eternal presence with God (heavenly, full of life, peace, and restoration) or eternal separation (hell), with the ultimate hope being the unification of heaven and earth in a restored creation, a ‘heaven-on-Earth’ reality after Jesus’ return, rather than just a disembodied existence.  It’s both an infinite duration and a quality of life, rooted in knowing God.”

That’s a lot words. 

But they do make a key point.  Heaven where Christians will spend eternity “is full of life, peace, and restoration.”  By contrast those who do not accept Christ’s work on their behalf – call it “denying grace” — will spend “an eternity separated from God,” which could be called hell.

So then, I go on to ask myself what heaven will be like.

Again, Mr. Google:

“According to the Bible, heaven is described as a place of ultimate peace, joy, and God’s presence, with no more death, pain, sorrow, or crying, featuring breathtaking beauty like streets of pure gold, pearl gates, and precious stones, illuminated by God’s glory rather than the sun, and where believers live eternally with Christ in perfect holiness, experiencing abundant life, meaningful work, and reunion with loved ones.”

Beyond that, rather than provide my own notions, I went to the Bible to find several verses that describe bits and pieces of heaven:

• John 14:1-3:  “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
• Matthew 6:19-20:  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
• John 11:25-26:  “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.  Do you believe this?’”
• Luke 23:42-43, which comes from what a criminal said while on a cross adjacent to Jesus:  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

So, heaven is “paradise.”

But another word for it is “mystery.”  Here, on earth, we cannot know fully what heaven will be like.  But, as Christians, we can rely on the fact that we’re going there for eternity – and that’s a mystery.