Destiny is all

 Keith and I have been binge watching The Last Kingdom on Netflix for the past couple of weeks.  Saxon vs Vikings in the time of Alfred the Great.  Ancient British history loosely used as a backdrop for stories of wars and passion and loyalty and brotherhood, identity and ......destiny.   At the start of each episode there's a voiceover recap of what has gone before which always ends with the words ( spoken in a germanic accent) Destiny Is All!   Keith and I have started saying this to each other over the washing up or whilst making dinner.  Its a bit of a catchy catchphrase.

But actually, its more than that.  Its a philosophy which the ancients adhered to because they believed that God ( or the gods) had a plan of action.   They also had so much more of a focus on the afterlife than we do.  For most people who have walked the earth up until about 150 years ago, the notion of life after death was important and urgent and to be taken extremely seriously.   Life was often hard and short.  People didnt really expect to live to a ripe old age - the poor died in the mines or the foundries or at sea or on building sites.  The rich died in childbirth and of communicable diseases.  Life was fragile and everyone knew it.  Death was a common occurrence from which nobody was shielded.  Heaven and Hell were preached from the pulpits and people thought long and hard about their fate.  

if you cant see this well, the av life expectancy in England for 400 years was round about 40

We dont.

We mostly dont think that death could happen to us tomorrow.  We dont live in the light of eternity and therefore destiny is not all.  Destiny is barely thought about.  We don't believe that God ( or the gods) have any plan for us because we are in charge of our own fortunes.   We now live in a self-determining, health and safety, medical breakthrough, cures and treatments era which has removed from us the fear of dying and the thought of what might happen next.   I think as people get older they do start to think and wonder about these things.  But your average 25 year old probably never stops to consider their own mortality.  150 years ago at 25 you were quite possibly already middle aged.

And the truth is that our eternal destiny is all.  It is really pretty much all that matters.  It is what Jesus died for.  For Jesus my destiny was His all.   Everyone has the chance to participate in the eternal destiny He purchased but so many don't know because we ( I ) haven't told them.  Our modern lives might not be fraught with danger ( although I don't suppose the Ukranians thought their lives were a few months ago) but they are certainly full of stress and fear and sadness and difficulty.  We are suffering from hopelessness.  Our destiny is full of hope.  Someone needs to be out there shouting from the rooftops that this life is not all there is.  If this life is crap there's a better one to come.  If this life is difficult and sad there is joy everlasting.  If this life is painful, there is eternal peace.   We are destined to rule and reign in a kingdom where there is no more death and where every tear has been banished from every eye.

My gospel tends to be so much more about God in my everyday rather than God in my hereafter.  And God here and now is fantastic and indispensable.  But my here and now is the blink of an eye in the light of the eternity Jesus has given me.  When this life seems long and wearying and too hard or just boring and pointless, I need to remind myself that I have a destiny and that it is very very good.