"It's only temporary"

"It's only temporary."

I hear a lot of people say this. About money, about material, about love... about life. The problem with this rather lousy excuse is the word "only." It assumes that temporariness negates purpose, and that the only things that matter are eternal things. Or at least that eternal things are more important.

Sadly, this philosophy is very popular among Christian circles, namely, "This life is only temporary", etc.

I believe the opposite is true. Things are only precious because they are temporary, and the fact that something is temporary makes it precious.

If eternal things are all that matter, than life doesn't matter. And if life doesn't matter, life is easy. When our psyche is craving a little TLC, all we have to do is sit around and speculate about the end times and how we can most efficiently get people saved for "some day"... Because as long we convince ourselves that our version of "some day" is the right version, right now doesn't matter. But we still get the satisfaction of "having a purpose."

Mmm, easy is yummy.

But the truth is, meaning and preciousness are found in the temporary. What matters is now. Your work matters. Your love matters. Your worship matters. Your hobby matters. Star Wars on blue-ray matters. Because what you do with this life matters, because this life only lasts for a finite time.

Everything eternal is out of our control. Speculating about it does 2 things: [a] Makes us feel in control of something we're not (I think that's called worshiping a false god), and [b] wastes precious time from this life.

Don't worry about the eternal. Instead, cherish things that aren't going to last. They're only temporary.