Spring from Hope

"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6that has come to you." (Colossians 1:3-5)

That one phrase really struck me: "the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven." I think it is because we have hope in heaven and future reward that we have room for faith and love in this life.

In my philosophy classes we talk about "utilitarianism" which is the idea that you ought to maximize utility (utility meaning something like goodness or happiness). Utilitarianism can be modified in many different ways to say you should maximize utility for yourself, or for society as a whole, and can be changed in many other ways as well. As a side note, the forms of utilitarianism we studied in philosophy differ from the kind of utilitarianism John Mill (the founder) espoused (based on my history of economics class).

I think this idea does hit something very fundamental within us, it does resonate with the feeling that we should make the most out of life and do as much as good as possible. Maximize. And that's why I think that if our hope is for this life only, it makes a lot of sense to maximize everything we've got here, carpe diem.

But because we have this hope, maximizing both our own utility and the utility of society as a whole allows room for deferring getting payoffs and rewards for our actions. It's okay to not get the glory, it's okay if other people get the better spot, it's okay to miss out on pleasures. It's better to serve than to be served. It's maximizing to love and to give. Why? Because our scope is not limited to this present life, but heaven. With the knowledge that life is short and eternity is long, maximizing utility plays out completely differently, changing from self-interested maximization to faith and love.

We hope in heaven, and that's why we live like this.