Paul Tripp: You will only ever make sense of the details of life in the right here, right now world that you live in with all of its brokenness when you look at that world from the perspective of eternity.

Kate Crowley: From Paul Tripp Ministries, this is Right Here, Right Now, connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

Male Actor: I just don't know why I'm doing what I'm doing anymore. I used to live with a sense of purpose, but it's all seemed to evaporate. I repeat the same tasks over and over again, and I deal with the same problems over and over again. And, and, for what? I could just video my life and save a lot of time. I remember being excited about my job. I remember getting up early so I could go in early, just because I liked what I was doing so much. And I remember when I first found my church; I was emotional in those first few services because I had never been to a church like this.

Now, I drag myself to church on Sunday and daydream my way through the service. And you know what drives me crazy? It's that it always seems like the wrong guys are winning. Look around at who's being successful and who's making money...it's the bad guys and the creeps; it's the guys who are cooking the books and schmoozing the boss that seem to get all the promotions at work. I feel like I'm stuck in the movie, Groundhog Day, and I don't know how to get myself out.

I'm tired of things always being the same; I'm tired of the same old hassle over and over again. And I'm tired of getting up in the morning and not having a clue why I do half of the things I do. Something has got to give; something has got to change.

Music: "Like Humans Do" by David Byrne

For millions of years, in millions of homes
A man loved a woman, a child it was born
It learned how to hurt and it learned how to cry
Like humans do
I'm breathing in, I'm breathing out
Ohhhhh
So slip inside this funky house
Ohhhhh
I'm breathing in, I'm breathing out
Ohhhhh

Kate Crowley: You're listening to Right Here, Right now, and in just a moment, Paul Tripp with his thoughts on "Survival Skills for a Fallen World." You can join Paul each weekday at 11 A.M. on WFIL, so tell your friends about us. There are also resources designed to encourage you in your marriage, ministry, and many other areas.

This includes, Lost In The Middle, Paul's recent book. Go to paultrippministries.org. That's all one word, paultripp, spelled T-R-I P-P, paultrippministries.org. Here's Paul with more from Right Here, Right Now.

Why Do You Do What You Do?

Paul Tripp: Have you ever stopped and asked yourself why you do what you do? Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, "Why do I get up in the morning? Why do I face the same day over and over again? Why do I do the same things over and over again? What in the world motivates me to do what I do?"

I mean, for example, what encourages you to deal with all the hassles of life in this fallen world? What gives you meaning and purpose when you do all those repetitive things that you do day after day? Watch your life--you repeat activities over and over again. You repeat conversations over and over again. You do the same things over, and over, and over again. What keeps you going? What motivates you? What gives you meaning and purpose? How do you stay in the game when things just don't seem to be working?

I mean, you know this is true. We live in a dramatically broken world. There's nothing in our lives that operates the way it was meant to operate. And so, we have problems in relationships, and we have problems in the situations of life, we have problems at work, and problems everywhere we go. Why do we ever deal with them? What motivates us to keep going? What do you tell yourself when you face painful rejection, or disappointing frustration, or personal failure? How do you deal with the fact when often as you look around, it, in fact, seems like the bad guys are winning?

Do you ever feel like you're in the movie, Groundhog Day, and your life is repeating again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. You're Bill Murray; you're in the middle of the movie, and you don't know how to get yourself out. Does discouragement ever rob you of your commitment and your drive? I mean, are you ever lacking in the kind of motivation that you need to do what God has assigned for you to do? Do you ever feel trapped in the middle of your ever-repeating story, but you don't know how to get yourself out? Or are you bored and unmotivated?

You try to numb yourself; you try to escape your life; you try to do anything you can do to not think about your boring, mundane, repetitive, everyday life? Or are you excited; are you motivated? Do you live with meaning and purpose? What gets you up in the morning? How do you make sense out of the stuff that's going on in your life in the here and now?

How do you make sense out of the fact that you adored your husband, and now you and he have a very tense relationship? How do you make sense out of the fact that you wanted to be a parent, but now you struggle with that responsibility? How do you make sense of the fact that you were excited about this job; now, it drives you crazy with all its mundane responsibilities and all the tension and criticism that you experience there?

What causes you to be able to face things that are difficult and painful? What keeps you from being dissatisfied and bored? What keeps you from quitting? What keeps you from hiding? What keeps you from running? What keeps you from avoiding, or are you doing all those things? What helps you to think that what you're going through right now is, in fact, worth it? What gives you cause to persevere even when the going seems way too tough? What does get you up in the morning day after day? What does yank you out of bed? What gives you meaning and purpose?

Music: "Gotta Serve Somebody" by Bob Dylan

You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

Lessons From a Long Family Road Trip

Paul Tripp: Luella and I had families that lived far away from us, and so we were always taking these long road trip vacations. Now, if you ever want to experience human depravity, take your family on a long road trip vacation, and you'll experience depravity, not just the depravity of your children, your own as well. And so, we would go on these trips, and we would try to think of ways of occupying our children, hopefully for thousands of miles so they wouldn't be fighting with one another as we took the trip. Often, that fighting would start before we ever got out of the driveway, and one of things we did was...we would play with our children what we called the "Detective Game."

I would give my children three seemingly unrelated details...broken glass, spilled water, dead body on the floor. Sounds like a wholesome story, huh? And the job of my children was, through 'yes' or 'no' questions to come up with the whole story, to solve the mystery of the story. Now, we always had one of our children who would immediately start going, "Oh Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, I know exactly what happened." Can I say this? That child was never right because it was only through the laborious asking of 'yes' or 'no' questions until the whole story was out on the table with the final chapter, that then, all those little details would make sense.

You see, that's your life. You will never ever be able to make sense out of the particular details of your situation and your relationships, your past, your present, and your future unless you have the last chapter on the table--unless you have the whole story. And what our children would have to do is they would have to work until they had the whole story discovered together, and in that cooperative effort, when they had the whole story on the table, then all those details would finally make perfect sense to them.

You see, every day, you face things that you didn't plan. Every day, you face things that you didn't want to face. Every day, you deal with things that you didn't know ahead of time you were going to deal with. Every day, you deal with the disappointing, and the confusing, and the unplanned. None of us can say, none of us can say that we are where we are, doing what we're doing solely because of careful administration and personal planning. All of us are confused by the details of our own lives. All of us wish we could've been let in on the secret.

You see, when you read a novel, there are secrets in the last chapter, and those secrets in the last chapter explain everything that happened before. Have you ever grabbed a novel, started reading it, got so intrigued by the plot that you went to last chapter to read it so that you could have the last chapter, so that, what you are reading now that had confused you would make sense?

Well, I want you to hear this. God does exactly that for us. God lets us in on the secret. God lets us in on the final chapter. God lets us know what happens in the end, and He does that so that we could live in the middle. God wants you to have that motivation. God wants you to have a reason to get up in the morning. God wants you to have glorious, and wonderful, and bright, and hopeful, meaning, and purpose.

God wants you to know why you're doing what you're doing in the way that you're doing it. God wants to unlock many of those mysteries that you will face; He won't unlock all of them, but you'll begin to understand things that you couldn't understand when you begin to look at life from the vantage point of the last chapter. There's a real way in which we need to get the last chapter first.

And so, God does something amazing. I love this, it does motivate me. God invites you and me to eavesdrop on eternity and then look back on our lives, and with unique perspective of eternity, we can begin to understand things that we would never understand, and we can begin to be motivated in ways that we would never be motivated by.

You see, we're often in our everyday lives, in our marriages, in our friendships, in our job, as we solve problems; we're often like our children in the middle of that game. You've got details, and you've got more details, and you uncover more details, but nothing is really making sense. There's just this loose collection of marbles in a bag that don't really hang together. You see, your life is actually a story. Your life, if you are one of God's children, has been absorbed in the larger story of redemption. Your life, whether it feels like it or not, is going someplace.

In fact, you could say it like this; your life is part of a larger story that's definitely going someplace. Your life is not just endless repetition of the same words, in the same locations, with the same people, and the same decisions, and the same activities, over and over again, like you're spinning in some aimless life wheel that isn't going anywhere. No, your life is part of a story that has direction and that has purpose. That story has an end, and when you get that end, it makes all kinds of sense.

Now the Bible gives us a couple of things that make a tremendous difference in our lives; they're terribly important. First of all, the Bible, by giving me that final chapter, reminds me that there's more to life than this moment that I'm living in. I love what Paul says in I Corinthians 15, hear these words. "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost." Then he says, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."

Listen; if your faith doesn't have a future, if this story doesn't have direction to it, if this story isn't going someplace, if there isn't more to come, then we ought to be pitied because our faith has been useless. It's a colossal waste of time--but it's not a waste of time. Think about Paul's argument, his argument is actually very powerful. The only way that any human being can make sense out of what is happening in the here and now is to look at it from the perspective of eternity. Eternity interprets your 'now'. Hear this; eternity interprets your 'now'. You see, some of us lack motivation because we lack eternity in our thinking. We're stuck in the here and now. We lack motivation because we have forgotten the last chapter of the story.

But not only does the final chapter, eternity, remind us that there's more to come. We are invited to eavesdrop on eternity, to look in, and to listen, and to hear, and to think, because it's only the values of eternity that help us to look at our values in the here and now. Eternity provides the ultimate values clarification. Eternity reminds me of where I'm going and what is important. You see, as you listen to the people in eternity, they aren't celebrating exotic vacations; they aren't celebrating elaborate meals; they aren't celebrating a Jaguar and a great steak; they aren't celebrating promotions; they aren't celebrating huge 'McMansions'; they aren't celebrating hot romance.

You know what they are celebrating? They are celebrating God's grace and God's power, God's faithfulness to deliver every single promise He ever made to His children. When you are in eternity, you look back, and what you celebrate is God. What you celebrate is His grace. What you celebrate is that this Person, whom you entrusted your life to made good on every single promise that He ever made. Here's the point of what I've been saying, "You will only ever make sense of the details of life in the right here, right now world that you live in, with all of its brokenness, when you look at that world from the perspective of eternity.

Music: "Shout to the North" Passion Worship Band

Men of faith, rise up and sing
Of the great and glorious King
You are strong when You feel weak
In your brokenness complete
Shout to the North and the South
Sing to the East and the West
Jesus is Savior to all
He's the Lord of Heaven and Earth

Revelation 7 and the Perspective of Eternity

Paul Tripp: I love the fact that the book of Revelation is in the Bible, because I need what that portion of God's Word says to me. And in Revelation 7, there is this beautiful scene, and I actually want to read a portion of that passage for you.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb, and they were wearing white robes, and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!' And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, 'Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever! Amen.' Then one of the elders asked me, 'These in white robes, who are they and where did they come from?' I answered, 'Sir, you know.' And he said, 'These are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst; the sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.'

Get the scene. It's God's suffering people, people who have lived in the hunger, and people who have lived in the heat, people who have faced the realities of this terribly broken world, people who have faced disappointment, and failure, and suffering, and trial, and difficulty, and they are actually walking into eternity still weeping. And the Bible says that the Lamb who is the Shepherd is on the throne. And then it says this, "And God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

I would ask you right now to let your imagination loose and see the scene. Here are broken, weak, and suffering believers, but they made it! And they stand before the Lord still crying, and John pictures something that is incredibly beautiful. He says, "God arises from the throne, and he begins coursing his way through this multitude of people, and He reaches up with His hands, and He wipes the tears of the first person, and He says, 'You don't need to cry anymore; you've made it.

There'll be no more suffering; there'll be no more sickness; there'll be no more pain and difficulty for I have fully done everything that I promised to do. I've won on your behalf, you've made it.'" And God works through the whole crowd until every tear is dry. "You don't have to cry anymore. You've made it; you're pain and your suffering has been worth it, but it's ended forever."

You see, you can face what you're facing right here and right now; you can face the repetitive nature of it; you can face the boredom; you can face the excitement you didn't want; you can face pain and difficulty because you know that there's more to come. There will be a day when this travail will be over. There will be a day when you will be with your Lord forever.

(Music Interlude)

There's a particular place that I go to in the Bible whenever I'm up against it, whenever I feel discouraged, whenever I feel like God's not hearing me, whenever I feel like life just doesn't make sense, I run to the Psalms. Hah, hah, I love the Psalms. I mean I think the Psalms are in the Bible to keep us honest, because the Psalms present the life of faith in a very real honest way. The life of faith in the Psalms is messy. It's a life of fits and starts. It's a life of hope colliding with discouragement, of faith intersecting with despair.

The Psalms give us life, not at some heavily pristine level; the Psalms give us life at the street level. I like Psalm 73, for example. In Psalm 73, Asaph says, "Look at my life. Have I obeyed for this? Surely for no reason have I kept myself pure." The Psalmist is saying, "I've obeyed, and I've obeyed, and I've obeyed, and this is the thanks I get? This is the life that God is going to give me?" Then Asaph looks around, and he remembers eternity, and all of a sudden, it all makes sense to him.

You know what you need to do today? You know what you need to do tomorrow as you're getting up? You know what you need to do when you face those disappointments and those discouragements, those trials, when you're overwhelmed, or you're bored, or you're lacking in motivation? Tell yourself today that this is not all there is; tell yourself that there's more to come; tell yourself that there really is an eternity that you will be part of. And then get up, and live with faith; live with courage; live with hope; live with joy.

Kate Crowley: There is a future and a hope for those in Jesus Christ, Paul Tripp on today's program. This is from the series, "Survival Skills for a Fallen World," on today's Right Here, Right Now.

For added insight on survival, take a look at Paul's most recent book, Lost In The Middle; in it, Paul shares how your struggles can be exactly what God wants to use to bring you moments of grace. That's Lost In The Middle, and you can request a copy when you visit paultrippministries.org. That's Paul Tripp, T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org.

Remember, you can also listen to these programs online or sign up for the daily podcast. CD copies of today's broadcast are available for only five dollars. These and other resources are available at paultrippministries.org, or call us at 1-800-551-6595. That's toll-free 1-800-551-6595.

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Next time, Paul continues his look at "Survival Skills for a Fallen World" in an important lesson on "Pursuing Community." That's tomorrow. I'm Kate Crowley, and for all of us at Paul Tripp Ministries, remember, in Jesus Christ, there really is help right here, right now.