How does the hope of heaven help us to live faithfully and fruitfully in the present? This is the question that Matthew McCullough explores in this deeply insightful and wonderfully edifying book. McCullough not only paints a compelling picture of our eternal home, but he helpfully connects the bright hope of heaven to many of our pressing problems in this present world—dissatisfaction, inadequacy, anxiety, grief, indwelling sin and more. McCullough was able to take familiar passages and infuse them with fresh insight, while also drawing on different Christian thinkers from the past. I appreciated the fact that McCullough would generally ground each chapter in a single passage of Scripture. The book could actually serve as the basis for a really helpful and practical sermon series. I'd previously enjoyed and benefitted from McCullough's prior book, Remember Death, and this was no different.

I am so grateful to have gotten a copy of this amazing book! In just seven short chapters, the author teaches why a future heaven changes life for us here on earth. My copy is heavily highlighted. But here are just a few favorite quotes:

“Hope matters…We need a hope strong enough to bear the weight of our lives in the meantime.”

And in talking about setting our minds above…
“But how do you set your mind on somewhere you’ve never been and something you haven’t experienced yet?”

And the answer: “The only way to long for a place you’ve never been is to long for the person whose presence makes that place what it is to you.”

This is very practical book, and I already want to reread it! Five stars!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC copy of this book!

5/5

i am someone who is overwhelmingly tapped in to the strife this world churns out. i read ecclesiastes often to help manage my expectations and remind myself to take a deep breath. i catch myself grieving often and deeply and need near constant reminders to realign where i set my beaten sense of hope. i have over-highlighted colossians 3 to where it’s almost unreadable, i’ve posted sticky notes on my dashboard and my mirror about the kingdom to come as defensive tactics, i have too frequently sought meaning in vapors, and i’ve had mental wrestling matches that consistently funnel into dejected convalescence.

i read everything i can get my hands on about the joy that is to be revealed to us. and this book has provided a tranquility that lingers.

don’t be mistaken, i will quickly be reminded of the harshness that is here to remind us here is not our home and i will rail against my longing again. but i will move forward from that viewing it a bit differently and with a bit more ease. i’m positive over 70% of the text in this book has been highlighted and i know i will be purchasing and reaching for mccullough’s words across the decades.

reading this did not erase the grief or the inquietude or disenchantment that makes itself known often, but it did teach me a bit more how to see them as signposts of my destination ahead that will quell all heartache.


thanks to netgalley and Crossway for the eARC.

First sentence (from the introduction): Another Christmas just came and went, along with a wonderful week away with our extended family.

Matthew McCullough shares 'meditations' on WHY remembering heaven helps us to live 'in the meantime' with hope, peace, and joy--even in the midst of troubles and hard circumstances. These meditations are not daily meditations--like a devotional book--but instead a series of longer chapters. Each chapter is a different way of looking at the subject. The book is not meant--and the author discloses this--to be an exhaustive book of reasons to remember heaven in light of our 'groans and moans.'

A few of his reasons to remember heaven:

grounds our lives as Christians
reframes our dissatisfaction in the meantime
overcomes our feelings of inadequacy in the meantime
empowers our battle with sin in the meantime
relieves our anxiety in the meantime
makes our suffering meaningful in the meantime
makes our grief bearable
sets our mission in the church

I found the book helpful and encouraging. It didn't always go in the direction of my preconceived notions, HOWEVER it always went in a direction that surprised me and ultimately proved engaging. I had not pieced together how HOPE in heaven or 'remembering heaven' could be connected with inadequacy and anxiety. So there were chapters that were JUST the medicine I needed. I think the book will be relevant for just that reason. I think each reader will have his or her own 'favorite' chapter(s) that speak to them in their need. The Holy Spirit is good like that.

I would definitely recommend this one.

Quotes:
Hope matters. We can't live without it. But what we hope in matters even more. We need a hope strong enough to bear the weight of our lives in the meantime. And that is precisely what we have in the hope of heaven.
Many Christians simply aren't thinking about heaven at all and, if asked, couldn't say why they should be.
Meditating on heaven, Richard Baxter argues, is how we use our understanding to warm our affections. It throws open 'the door between the head and the heart.'
How we spend our moments is how we spend our lives.
The only way to long for a place you've never been is to long for the person whose presence makes that place what it is to you.
Love for Christ anchors us to the future we've been promised, and it reshapes how we live here in the present.
Pride is the poison our culture doles out as medicine.
We are anxious when we feel responsible, as if all the outcomes depend upon us. But God is responsible for this future. Everything depends on him.