Rewards

This is one of those posts explaining the meaning of a biblical concept.

Rewards. Often we dislike the idea of rewards in heaven because it sounds selfish. I mean, the last will be first and the first will be last, right? And we don't want to be in Christianity because it will give us selfish things at the end, our true reward will be Jesus and that will be all we need, right?
YES! Yes to both of those. Perfectly true. God's awesome. But think about the first idea. The last will be first. He or she who serves others on earth will be exalted more in heaven....yes? Is GOOD! Now I must say, haven will be gloriously magnificent beyond the acceptable capacities of our human brains and another hundred times over, absolutely regardless of how well you served Gods will on earth. BUT, rewards will still be awesome. They're in the bible. So they're true, they're there. They exist. So why did God make them? Not for us to avoid because we don't want to be selfish. I mean, accepting Jesus's gift is the most selfish thing of all! Putting your cruddy, cruddy sins on the shoulders of an innocent man, the one who loves you so much, where each sin condemns him to excruciating death and separation from his father the only source of life and happiness in the universe...! um, VERY selfish. So do not be ashamed to pursue rewards in heaven. I mean, you need motivation anyways. If you could just die right now, or live life lazily until you died, and end up with the same result in heaven, well, you'd DO that! And that would be silly. Not only because living in Gods will is like the most true, hard, and riotous adventure ever (well, the world has been tainted by sin so it doesn't feel very great), but also because there are rewards!!!!!

Ok break time. One caveats to keep you out of trouble. Gods will for you might be very humble and simple. Might be primarily diligent prayer, working for 20 years at a nursing home where the patients are out of it so much they never understand why you're helping them, or it might be slaving in India for 15 years trying to translate the bible and getting only 1 convert (William Carey, father of modern missions). Whatever the case, that does not mean your reward will be small. God has different scales than we do. Trust him. If you follow his bidding, you'll be awesome.

Peace be with you