YOLO (But it’s Forever) ~A Guest Post by Alisa Childers

Alisa Childers’ excellent newest book, Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed released today and in celebration of its launch, Alisa has provided us with this excerpt as a guest post. To find out more about the book, be sure to tune in next Wednesday when I have Alisa on the podcast to discuss it!

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Have more fun. Do what makes you happy. Wear Crocs to prom. Buy Girl Scout cookies. Overpay for tacos. Indulge in that decadent dessert. Drink that extra cocktail. Buy those overpriced sneakers. Pull the trigger on that new sports car. Hike that mountain. Avoid the big pile of clothes in your laundry room. Pay for that marathon. Decide that you would pay money to not run a marathon.

A quick search of the #YOLO (You only live once) hashtag on social media will provide many statements like the ones above. Some are hilarious. Some are more serious. Some are good and healthy, while some are unhelpful, sinful, and toxic. What’s the one thing all these statements have in common, though?

Motive.

The reason behind the why and what is the same. The rationale behind the idea that you only live once is this: There are no eternal consequences for our choices. When we die, that’s it. Lights out. Might as well empty our savings accounts and book that luxury vacation we’ve been dreaming about.

Why not, right?

I was smacked in the face with this idea one night when a television commercial came on during my favorite prime-time show. It began with a confusingly happy song playing underneath a funeral procession in which a sad-looking young man marched through the snow as another man looked at his watch. (Because funerals are so boring?)

The scene cut to a car skidding away from the graveside as the young man with the watch drove to a trendy exclusive club filled with live music, liquor, and beautiful women. A song blaring above the dancing, drinking, laughing, and flirting urged the revelers to have fun; “it’s later than you think.” Then the slogan, “You have a single life” flashed on the screen as the product, a single-malt whiskey, came into focus. The clear message of the ad was that nothing will remind you of your own mortality more clearly than a funeral, and at some point, every one of us will be in that casket. One day you’ll be six feet underground, so live it up. Because #YOLO.

If we can shut off our senses from the impending reality of heaven, hell, and final judgment, we can be free to pursue our best lives now. We can justify all manner of fun and frivolity, pleasure and purchase because, you know, #YOLO.

As Christians, we are not supposed to think this way. Jesus wants our hearts to be focused on heaven, not earth. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus teaches that the only place we should store up treasures for ourselves is in heaven. Anything we build for this world can be stolen, broken, or ruined. He emphasizes, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

In John 17:14, when Jesus is praying for his disciples, he notes that the world hates them because they are “not of the world,” just as he is not of the world. In John 15:18-19, Jesus, while speaking to his disciples during the Last Supper, explains that if we identify with those who oppose him (the world), they will love us, but if we follow Christ, they will hate us. Jesus focuses on eternity in John 18:36 when he declares, “My kingdom is not of this world.” He warns, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” and goes on to state that he will return to “repay each person according to what he has done” (Matthew 16:26-27).

In Philippians 3:12-21, the apostle Paul builds on this idea. He urges Christians to think in terms of pressing “on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (verse 14). He reminds us that our primary citizenship is not to a country, state, or city on earth: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (verses 20-21).

It can be jarring to reorient our thinking this way, especially if we are not used to considering ourselves “exiles” on earth, as the apostle Peter refers to Christians. In 1 Peter 2:9-12, he writes that we have been chosen and are God’s own possession. This does not mean God intends for us to be miserable or that we are to withhold good things from ourselves while on earth. Rather, Peter explains that we see ourselves as exiles so that we may “proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light” (verse 9). In other words, we have great news to share about a much better world that God is inviting us into. With that in mind, Peter urges Christ followers to keep ourselves from sinful passions that are at war with our souls.

Does this mean we shouldn’t enjoy our lives or ever indulge in good food, fun, and celebration? Certainly not! We aren’t talking about biding our time on earth until we can escape to heaven. It means that our eyes should be fixed on our eternal home, the Kingdom of God.

David described this Kingdom beautifully about a thousand years before Jesus did: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). His Kingdom is immeasurably better than the pleasure we get from a temporary shopper’s high, sugar fix, or adrenaline rush. Heaven isn’t a weird and supernatural place where angels sit on clouds with harps. It’s our home. Philosopher Peter Kreeft put it this way:

Home—that’s what heaven is. It won’t appear strange and faraway and “supernatural”, but utterly natural. Heaven is what we were designed for. All our epics seek it: It is the “home” of Odysseus, of Aeneas, of Frodo, of E. T. Heaven is not escapist. Worldliness is escapist. Heaven is home.

When I wake up with that empty feeling, that ache of disappointment, that pit in my stomach, I know that what I’m really longing for is something no earthly apartment can live up to.

I long for heaven.

Even if all the hopes I have for my life here on earth are never within my grasp, I know that something so much more beautiful, fulfilling, and wonderful is waiting for me on the other side. And even if I were to somehow manage to achieve everything I could put my mind to on this earth, it would pale in comparison with the absolute ecstasy of being fully enveloped in the love of God forever.

Adapted from Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed by Alisa Childers. Copyright © 2022. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Alisa Childers is a wife, mom, author, podcaster, blogger, speaker, and worship leader. She was a member of the award-winning CCM recording group ZOEgirl. She is currently a respected speaker at apologetics and Christian worldview conferences, as well as the host of her popular YouTube channel. Alisa’s story was featured in the documentary American Gospel: Christ Crucified. She has been published at The Gospel Coalition, Crosswalk, The Stream, For Every Mom, Decision magazine, and The Christian Post, and her blog post “Girl, Wash Your Face? What Rachel Hollis Gets Right . . . and Wrong” received more than one million views.