It’s All Gonna Burn Up One Day

Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that warns: Too much sodium can kill you. Remember Lot’s wife.

Here’s something most people don’t want to think about. Everything you own is going to be destroyed. Not metaphorically. Literally.

Peter said it plainly: “… the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10, NKJV)

Yep. All of it. Gone.

I’ve known this my whole life, and yet I still catch myself caring about whether the book I ordered from Amazon arrives with a dented corner. Sometimes I return it and request a new one. Why? Because I’m human, and humans are ridiculous.

But here’s the thing. Most of the time, I don’t return it. I keep it, dent and all. Not because I’m cheap or lazy, but as a deliberate reminder that my grip on this stuff is temporary.

I’m practicing detachment on purpose, one dented cover and bent page at a time.

For years, when something in our house gets scratched, scuffed, or broken, I tell my wife, “Well, it’s gonna burn up one day anyway.”[1] That sounds dark, but it’s actually freeing. It’s a reminder not to become attached to any material thing.

Now, if something breaks to the point of being useless, we fix it. That’s just being a functional adult. But a scratch? A dent? A worn edge? An imperfection? Those aren’t problems; they’re evidence. Evidence that all material things are in a slow, irreversible process of returning to nothing or burned to a cinder.

And the sooner you make peace with that, the less power your stuff has over you.

All the things you own are already on their way out. So you may want to stop pretending otherwise.

Oh, if you want to steal my line to use in your household—”It’s gonna burn up one day anyway”—feel free to. You don’t even have to give me credit. : )

I can think of no better way to end this article than to quote the rest of the passage from 2 Peter.

“Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:11-13, NKJV)

Until next time.

Your brother in the eternal quest that outlasts the fire,

fv

[1] For my pedantic friends, I’m well aware that “gonna” isn’t formal English. It’s an informal contraction of “going to.” It’s legit to use it in casual speech and writing, for example: “I’m gonna grab some coffee” = “I’m going to grab some coffee.” Or “I’m gonna throw an eraser at all the priggish souls who enjoy nitpicking other people’s slang.”