Eternity Schizophrenia

"He has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)

News feeds over the last few days have reported the shocking suicide deaths of two cultural icons, fashion designer Kate Spade and celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain. Both Spade and Bourdain were accomplished, successful, rich and glamorous celebrities who seemingly had it all. Both, however, also battled anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse, and family problems. And they are not alone. The CDC now ranks suicide as the tenth leading cause of death in the United States with suicide rates having risen more than 30% since 1999.

Peggy Drexler writing for CNN articulates what many of us are feeling:

"Spade's death challenges the kind of thinking that keeps many of us going: that certain "achievements" — whether it's fame or money or family — are indicators of a happy life and content mind. We begin to understand that there is often a contrast to what we see on the surface — and, in Spade or any other celebrity's case, to what we see in ads or on TV — and who someone really is. We learn that what we see may have nothing to do with reality. And that's a bitter pill to swallow."

This morning I picked up my copy of Paul David Tripp's New Morning Mercies  (2014, Crossway) devotional book and turned to the entry for June 7. Tripp's entry began with a question: "Are you experiencing the schizophrenia of having eternity hardwired into your heart but living as if this moment is all there is?"

Tripp continued: "It is sad how many people constantly live in the schizophrenic craziness of eternity amnesia. We were created to live in a forever relationship with a forever God forever. We were designed to live based on a long view of life. We were made to live with one eye on now and one eye on eternity. You and I simply cannot live as were put together to live without forever. But so many people try. They put all their hopes and dreams in the right here, right now situations, locations, possessions, positions, and people of their daily lives. They load moment after moment with undeliverable expectations/ They ask people to be what people this side of eternity will never be. They demand that a seriously broken world deliver what it could never deliver even if it were not broken....(Our) eternity amnesia makes us unrealistically expectant, vulnerable to temptation, all too driven, dependent on people and things that will only disappoint us, and sadly susceptible to doubting the goodness of God. Recognizing the eternity that is to come allows you to be realistic without being hopeless, and hopeful when things around you don't encourage much hope.

Paul David Tripp's devotional began with a good question, one that is a good one for us to end on: "Are you experiencing the schizophrenia of having eternity hardwired into you heart but living as if this moment is all there is?" Augustine of Hippo writing in 4AD observed, "O Lord, our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you."

Schizophrenic craziness of eternity amnesia or restful hearts in God himself. The choice is ours; the grace is God's.