As It Is In Heaven

How do I keep from being pulled under by how bad things are down here?

Barber names it plainly: friends losing fathers, a mother with Alzheimer's, a world that feels like it is coming apart. The old saints in the front row hummed and moaned because their minds were somewhere else, and it got them through. A heart fixed above is what lets a person survive the worst the earth has to offer.

If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory.

Colossians 3:1–4

I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.

Psalms 121:1–2

Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward person is decaying, yet our inward person is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.

Hebrews 12:1–3

Does praying for God's will to be done actually change anything here?

Barber points to the prayer Jesus taught and hears in it a repeated request: bring heaven down. It is not a wish about the afterlife but a request that earth would start looking like the place God reigns. The prayer puts the direction of travel from heaven to earth, not earth up to heaven.

Pray like this: “‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:9–10

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people; and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:1–4

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem to be a delight, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; and the voice of weeping and the voice of crying will be heard in her no more.

Isaiah 65:17–19

He said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

Luke 11:2–4

What am I supposed to actually do to bring a piece of heaven down?

After the vision comes the list. Barber calls it his heaven to earth list: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love. These are not feelings to work up but things to drop into a room. He learned it watching his own children marry and grandchildren arrive, glimpses he could not manufacture.

Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.

Colossians 3:12–14

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ “The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Matthew 25:34–40

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22–23

Why does forgiveness feel like the hardest thing on the list?

Barber does not skip over it. He says forgiveness is hard sometimes, then anchors it: forgive as the Lord forgave you. Paul puts the complaint and the offense right there in the same paragraph, as if the friction between people is exactly where heaven's forgiveness gets practiced. The one who was forgiven much is the one who can hand it on.

…bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.

Colossians 3:13–14

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.

Matthew 18:21–22

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:31–32

But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Is suffering just something to endure, or can God use it for something?

Barber picks up a strange image: love is the coagulant, the thing that binds, and it binds when heat hits it. Suffering is not welcomed, but when it comes it rises the church the way heat rises a cake. Paul is the example, the man who talked about suffering and hardship as something that builds the body rather than breaks it.

Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.

Colossians 3:14–15

Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:3–5

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2–4

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials, that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ—…

1 Peter 1:6–7

…strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom.

Acts 14:22