The Pursuit of One Dream: Eternity

“Do you regret selling the old place?” Syl waved at the farm spread out in the valley below.

Syl was sitting beside Grandpa Mike on the porch swing. Syl lived just across the yard with his parents, and he had come over for supper after work, as he occasionally did. Now they were relaxing after eating some of Grandma’s tasty garden goodies along with her delicious homemade bread topped with fresh butter.

Grandpa slowly hefted himself off the porch swing and leaned on the railing, gazing down at the old home place. “No . . . not really. Liz and I made many memories in that old house and barn, but,” he shrugged, “I need to remember that this is not my final destination. I’m looking forward to the home prepared for those who are faithful.” He fixed his eyes on Syl. “I want to be counted among the faithful, doing all I can for the Master with the time I have left. And one of the things I want to do yet is leave an example to your generation. Did . . . did I ever tell you what we did with the farm before it was sold?”

A sparkle came into Syl’s eyes. He was 22 years old, but he never got tired of listening to Grandpa’s stories.

“Well, it all started when I realized I couldn’t keep up the place by myself. You see, I’m not as spry as I once was.” A twinkle came into Grandpa’s eyes. “Anyway, it was time to either have one of the children move home and take over the farm, or move to one of the children. It made more sense for me and Liz to move since it was just the two of us, so we ended up here with your parents. But . . . you know all that.”

“Yeah, I know it, but I always like hearing you talk about it. I was just fresh out of school when you moved here.”

Grandpa looked off into the distance for a moment, then continued. “When we got ready to put the place up for sale, I asked a few people what it was worth. I was shocked.” Grandpa threw his arms out in a sweeping motion. “According to them, the farm had quadrupled in value from what we paid for it 30 years before. Then, when I learned how much would go to taxes, I got all worked up. Couldn’t sleep well for a week.”

“What did you do?” Syl was leaning forward with anticipation.

“After talking it over with Liz, we realized we needed advice. There were several things we were uncomfortable with. For one, we never had that much money. I knew we were well off, but . . . millionaires? I mean, we did lay a ‘nest egg’ away for tough times, but nothing like that. Why, back when I was young, the only people worth a million worked on Wall Street.”

The descending sun began changing the clouds to shades of pink and red. Grandpa came back to the swing and dropped beside Syl.

“And then we had to think about where all that money would go when we passed away. We want to give each one of our children something when we pass away. But none of them need it. They’re all doing very well themselves. There are better things to leave to our children than a stack of cash, especially when they don’t need it.”

“Such as what?” Syl squirmed and frowned. The less Grandpa gives to my parents, the less they in turn have to give to me.

“Such as a godly example.” Grandpa frowned at Syl as if he were reading his thoughts. “I tried to teach your dad how to be a good steward, and I think he is doing a good job of it. But I also wanted to teach my children and grandchildren how to give, to spend time with their family, to slow down and experience life. You see, many people have a dream they are trying to catch . . . a bigger house to build, another business venture to pursue, the neighbor’s property that will come up for sale to buy . . . the list goes on and on. And for some, after pursuing too closely after these things, their dream changes to finally get the mortgage paid off.”

Grandpa stared moodily at his work-hardened hands. He spoke as a man speaking from experience, one who had learned his lesson. He turned to Syl. “Dreams are elusive. Just as you think you have them, they escape, and the thing you thought you wanted becomes dull or breaks in your hands. And if dreaming is what you are about, you will immediately begin chasing after a new one.”

Syl looked puzzled. “But why does a dream achieved not bring fulfillment? Once a dream is realized, wouldn’t true contentment follow?”

“Tell me about one of your dreams,” Grandpa said.

Syl’s face turned bright red. “Well . . . uh . . . I guess one of my most immediate dreams is to find a girl and eventually get married.”

“Okay, let’s go with that one. You dream of a girl and soon you get up the nerve and ask her to begin a courtship. Next, you can’t wait until you get married. After the newness of marriage has worn off, you start eyeing properties. After all, you want to provide for the family that you expect to be blessed with.

“If you acquire one farm, you later want two. Or possibly your dreams are influenced by what your neighbors are doing. You didn’t know you wanted a thing until they had it. Whatever the case, after a time you don’t really know what you want. The sweet girl you married is always complaining about you not having time for her or the children, and you even catch yourself wondering if you made the right choice in marrying such an ungrateful woman. Just look at all you have given her. A nice house, and plenty of good food and money to buy anything that would help fulfill whatever her dreams are. Come to think of it, you aren’t even sure what her dreams are. Or if she even has any. She just has that tired look about her eyes all the time.”

Grandpa’s eyes dropped shut as he slowly drifted back and forth on the porch swing. Syl broke into his reverie. “Go on, Grandpa.”

“Oh . . . sorry. Where was I going? Oh, yes . . . as I was saying, when you pursue dreams, you end up having many regrets. Our forefathers pursued only one dream.”

“What was that?”

“They dreamed of a time when they could go home to be with their Lord and Master. If the only thing you could expect in life is being hunted and chased as some wild beast, you wouldn’t dream much on earthly things, now, would you?”

“I . . . I guess not. They must’ve had the most depressing existence, always living in fear of being caught. Never knowing when they would be taken for questioning, torture, or even death.”

“But you see, that is the big difference between how they viewed life from what we tend to view it. If they had a dream, it was on heaven, but when we dream, which we do a lot, it is about expanding our holdings, or possibly our next vacation.

“We are a people who have lost our moorings and now we wonder who we really are. We remember that we are called to follow the teachings of Jesus. But after living in a free country that emulates wealth, we aren’t sure what that means. And so . . . we dream. Big.”

Grandpa turned to Syl and fixed him with sharp eyes that peered out from under bushy eyebrows. “If I leave one thing with you, Syl, it is this: the destination is a small part of it. The journey is mostly what life is about. In fact, the journey, in part, will determine what the destination is.”

He lapsed into silence, and they both pondered what had been said. Suddenly, Syl looked at Grandpa. “Hey, you never finished telling the story of your place. What did you do with all the money you received?”

“We didn’t receive much of the money.”

“You . . . what? You gave the farm away?”

“You might say that. A portion, anyway.”

“But . . . didn’t you need some to live on? After all, you can’t work very much anymore.”

“We kept some of it and laid it away for medical needs and to pass to our children as an inheritance. As I said, we didn’t give it all away.”

“But how do you support yourself? You seem to have enough, but you don’t make that much with the little work you can still do.”

“Well, when I said we gave most of the farm away, that was only partially true. We did quite a bit of research and asked a lot of questions. We discovered a tool called a Charitable Remainder Trust.”

“What is that?”

“CAM Foundation offered it to us. They call it a CRT for short. We donated a portion of the farm to this Foundation, and they put it into this trust. They then turned around and sold their portion to Brother Gary. The money was invested and produces annual returns. We chose to have a 7 percent annual payout from the trust, which we receive as a check every three months, and it is more than enough for us to live on. We have even been tithing on that income like we do on all the money we make.”

“But . . . what does the charity get out of it?”

“That’s what makes this trust so interesting. We get payments for the rest of our lives. But once we pass on, the remainder goes to help the needy. And the way I understand, with the returns the trust is getting, the whole amount I donated might still be there. I am excited about the amount of good that money will do for God’s people.”

Grandpa paused and reached for the glass of lemonade on the small table beside the swing. He took a large swallow, then, after swatting at a pesky fly, continued.

“We were actually allowed to choose the percentage of the trust value that we would get. We chose a rate that was lower than the expected return. So far the trust has increased in value every year. That means every year our payment increases. But it also means the amount left over for the needs of the poor is also increasing.”

He took another sip from his glass. “You see, I concluded that what we give to God is treasure stored against eternity. If I keep everything for myself and live a lavish lifestyle, all the poor people I could have helped and didn’t, well . . . what will I say when I stand before the judgement? When I could help the needy and didn’t.”

A frown creased Syl’s face. “I don’t understand.”

“Jesus said we can lay up treasure on earth, or we can lay it up in heaven. He also said our heart is where our treasure is. So, that means if a man lays up treasure in heaven, his heart will also be there.”

Grandpa lapsed into silence for a while, then continued. “We typically assume that when our heart is a certain way, then our lives will follow. While this might apply in some areas, such as our initial surrender to Christ, many areas of our lives are exactly the opposite.”

“How does that work?” Syl looked even more confused.

“Well, just follow that thought. Jesus commands us to lay up treasure in heaven so our hearts will follow. But we lay up treasure on earth and claim our hearts are in heaven. That contradicts what Jesus said. Sometimes we just need to obey His commandments, which is really what faith is all about.”

“That is why we decided to donate a big chunk of the farm down there.” Grandpa waved his hand over the porch railing. “We needed to provide for ourselves, but I also saw how deceitful wealth is. So, we donated it to charity and laid up treasure in heaven, all while providing for our own house.”

Grandpa turned to Syl with a bright smile, “And you know what? Since making that step of faith, my heart has been drawn more and more to God. We are even able to give away part of the payments that come to us. I stopped dreaming about what I can accomplish for myself. Now I dream about what I can accomplish for God. Through helping with my money and my time.”

“Do you have regrets about giving away all that money?” Syl reached for one of Grandma’s crisp chocolate chip cookies on the side table. After taking a big bite and munching for a bit, he continued. “It just seems like a lot of money to give away after all the toil and sweat you put into it.”

“Yes, I have regrets.” Grandpa’s face took on a thoughtful look. “But not about giving the money away. My regrets are that I didn’t realize some of the mistakes I was making sooner in life. But . . .” he shrugged his shoulders, “it’s never too late to change course, even as late in life as I did.

“I don’t know if we made the best decision in putting our money in a CRT since the money won’t be used to help the poor until we pass. But . . .” and he fixed Syl with a piercing glance, “I did know it was wrong to hoard it for our own use. We also would have paid a lot in taxes if we just sold it and now that saved money will help the poor. There may have been a better way. But . . . we did the best we knew.

“And you have to consider what this is doing for us. We are taking care of our own household, we can continue giving from the income we receive, and we removed the bulk of the money from our control so we can’t spend it on things we don’t need. And when we are gone, a sizeable amount of money will be available for charity.”

Grandpa drained the last of his lemonade, then setting the glass down he turned to Syl. “If God tarries, someday you will be, like me, sitting on a porch, reminiscing over your life. Will you have regrets? Or will you say, ‘I did the best I knew how’?”

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:6-8