“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands go to hell.” - Mark 9:43
There is nothing, on this entire planet, worth more than your eternal life in heaven. Nothing. Throughout the gospels, Jesus tells us that over and over again.
No temptation or sin.
No good feeling.
No amount of wealth.
No fame or glory.
No amount of success.
No person or relationship.
Not. One. Thing.
Here, he emphasizes that it is better to lose a hand than heaven (but please don’t go cutting limbs off, this is a metaphor to show heaven’s value, not a mandate to remove body parts).
We don’t often like to face our own mortality, and the reality that lies beyond, but Jesus does not mince his words. He forces us to confront those very truths. Earth is temporary. Our lives here are fleeting. Heaven is more valuable than all of it. Yet, in the here and now, it is so easy to forget that far away concept of eternity. To trade it for a momentary feeling of elation, for acceptance, for success, for the love of others, for just about anything.
We are called to live this life, to be the hands and feet of God, to be in this world but not of it. So, live with your feet planted on the ground, but with you mind set heavenward.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the blessing of salvation, for loving me and wanting me to spend eternity with You. Help me to live out that love to others, to avoid temptation, to live here on this earth but to always remember where my true home lies. In Jesus name, Amen.