Heaven Can't Wait, Part One

Each one of you has a philosophy of life.
You may not realize it...
You may not even know it, but you have one nevertheless.

It may be sound - or it may be false.
It may be positive - or it may be negative.
It may be Christian - or it may be pagan.
Perhaps you could not expound it in so many words, but you have one just the same.

It lies back of every decision you make...
It colors every opinion you hold...
It suggests every action you take...
and it shows itself in a hundred different ways:
The type of amusement you seek...
The kind of pictures you prefer...
The magazines and newspapers you read...
The television programs you watch...
The slang you use...
Your favorite songs...

All these things are indicative of the tenor of your thinking and are clues to your philosophy of life.

Such a clue, I believe, is the title of a song of some years ago, "Heaven Can Wait."
It is indicative of a prevailing idea to which a great many of us subscribe...
"This is paradise enough" is a philosophy which says,
"We're only young once, let us have our fun while we can.
There's plenty of time for responsibility and serious thoughts.
We're not ready to settle down yet...
We're out for a good time, so don't be a wet blanket by asking us to be serious.
This is the time to be happy - so come along, let's dance.
Have another drink...you're only young once."

This idea is not new, nor is it modern.
You and your parents and your grandparents have been saying it down through the ages.
Always there have been young people who have fallen victims to this pagan philosophy and have expressed it in many different ways.

It was this idea that Robert Herrick expressed in the seventeenth century when he said:
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying."

You see, there is nothing new about the idea of sloughing off of responsibilities or duties or thoughts of a future life.
There is nothing new here - but there is also nothing good about it.

I wonder why it is that so many young people are afraid of that which is high - afraid of high ideals, of high thoughts, of high morality.

Is it because so may grew up in homes saturated with cynicism and helplessness and defeatism?

Some of you grew up in an age when not only big sisters and brothers - but fathers and mothers took to drinking and staying out nights...
When young girls were trained to sever liquor in barrooms no better than the old saloon...
When American women were persuaded by brilliant advertising that it was fashionable to drink...
When Hollywood and Freudian psychology were making us sex-conscious as never before.

It is not surprising, therefore, that so many of you young people have lost your moorings...are confused and bewildered...And have the feeling that no one - not even God - cares about you.

Yet behind the "so what" indifference - the cynicism, the boredom, all of you want challenges and jobs.
All of you want to make your own way in life...unless you have been softened and spoiled by parental indulgence.

Most of you want to get married - and deeply and sincerely desire your marriage to be a success...
You want to have a home and a family and you want to see some light ahead for your children.

You would like to give yourself to something worthwhile, perhaps a hospital project...work with children...the church.
Inside are the stirrings and longings and a hunger for the real meaning of life.
You are in search of happiness but don't know where to find it, or even how to look.

(Today's blog is copied in its entirety from a sermon preached by Peter J. Marshall; Heaven Can't Wait by Peter J. Marshall, 1963, p. 38. Part Two will be published tomorrow.)