heaven of indulgence

Is heaven good? To ask the question may appear nonsensical. Won't the good God be setting all the rules, wiping away every tear, and sustaining everything forever? Amen!

But I wonder if people may misunderstand when they presume that heaven is a place of indulgence. I for one believe that the training in righteousness and restraint that we undergo throughout life is not wasted. We don't eat right on Earth with the understanding that our heavenly bodies will then enable us to be gluttons without consequence. We don't share with and sacrifice for others on Earth with the understanding that everyone will sit on inexhaustible stacks of precious gems in heaven's economy. (Side note: ever hear the joke about the soul who tries to carry gold into heaven, only to be confronted at the gates with the reasonable question "Why are you so concerned with hoarding pavement?") We don't work industriously at our jobs as unto God with the understanding that God's court will be populated purely by sluggards and leisure seekers. And most of all we certainly don't earnestly worship the Lord before death with the understanding that in the afterlife the universe will finally revolve around us instead.

Does heaven imply the freedom to do, have, and be whatever you wish? Heavens no. People shouldn't think, whether they say it out loud, that Christianity consists of a simple trade between putting on a saintly face in the present in order to receive the "right" to unending self-gratification in the distant future. Seek and obey God and trust that He will care for you. You cannot escape from Him in any case. So holiness matters in every time and place. The cultivation and sanctification of your deepest character may as well start now.

And why not? Christianity supposes that the Master of heaven is currently reachable! Heaven is the new creation. The Spirit working in you brings about a portion of that new creation. You're intended to be a new creature whose old foibles are replaced. You're an immediate window, however smudged, for the light of heaven to shine into time. Living as He directs won't be stopped by something so trivial as human death. Heaven will be a place to act like a saint, not like a savage.