To the editor:
I love walking the streets of our fair city early in the morning, encountering the same faithful, hardy souls who are doing their best to keep their physical bodies healthy.
At the same time, I wonder, “Are my fellow inhabitants of this present world paying attending to make sure their destination beyond this present realm is secure?”
We work and strive and struggle to attain things in this life, but do these things make us happy? A bigger house, a better or newer car, the latest iPhone, PlayStation — you name it — when obtained, do they bring us true contentment or just a desire for more and better stuff?
I am a reader of the Bible, God’s love letter to us. It tells us this: “Life is just a vapor.” We’re here for a few short years and then comes eternity in one place or the other. All would like to think we’re headed for heaven, but the Bible says “Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in thereat …and narrow is the way which leadeth unto l ife, and few there be that find it.”
In my experience, all 66-plus years of it, I’ve found my happiness comes when I set my eyes on Jesus and His saving grace. Knowing my eternal destination is the right one is so much more important to me than anything this world has to offer. In my opinion, many rich people live any way they please and then try to buy their way into heaven. Still others live as they desire and then try to earn their way through good works.
Neither of these is possible. I recall Ephesians 2:8-9, which says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”
There are so many distractions today, but I find if I want to be truly happy and contented, I must learn to set my affection on the things above.
Clare Kierstead
Presque Isle
