Life is more than Bible study, prayer meetings, and evangelism. These are certainly good things, but they only comprise a small part of human life. Tragically, for some Christians, these "spiritual" activities are the only parts of life worth living. The rest of life - eating, drinking, working, playing, bill-paying, cleaning, painting, and traveling, etc. - is simply endured as bothersome "secular" aspects of life - necessary evils that must be tolerated in order to endure until the next Bible study, prayer meeting, or evangelistic opportunity.

In his new book, Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God, author Michael Wittmer seeks to challenge this misguided "heavenly" mindset. He asks us to

Think about it. We spend most of our time on tasks that are not considered 'spiritual.' We brush and floss our teeth, mow the lawn, buy groceries, take our children to the park or zoo, read the newspaper, bake a cake, wash the car, press our pants, watch a movie - all of which we do not so much because we are Christian but because we are human. Even full-time evangelists and missionaries must devote time to these merely human activities. Thus we are in deep trouble if leading souls to Christ is the only reason we remain on this planet, for most, perhaps 99.9 percent of what we do, is not that. (pp. 94-95).

According to Wittmer, we must not only wrestle with the meaning of life - we must also embrace the deep and profound meaning in life. This world does matter. It is God's creation and it is good!

All God's creation is important to God - not simply the so-called "spiritual" stuff. How could it not be? God has created all things and declared them "good," indeed, "very good" (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). Humanity's fall into sin has not changed this (1 Tim. 4:4; 1 Cor. 10:26). In spite of humanity's misuse of creation the heavens still declare God's glory, the earth still reveals his handiwork, and humankind is still fearfully and wonderfully made! (see Ps. 19:1; 139:14).

God loves his creation so much that God is redeeming all things through Christ (Col. 1:15-20). The supreme demonstration of God's love for creation is manifest in God's eternal union with creation in the person of Christ. The Word became flesh! The incarnation of Christ - the enfleshment of God - is God's ultimate declaration of the sanctity and goodness of creation!

Contrary to what some Christians think, the physical world is not our problem. It is our perversion, distortion, and corruption of the physical world through human sin that is the problem. God will ultimately purify all creation by making a new heavens and new earth. Our ultimate end will not involve existence as floating spirits ethereally gliding through billowy clouds lazily playing harps. No, our destiny is to be clothed with resurrection bodies with tangible feet firmly planted on good old (but renewed!) terra firma.

The goal of life is not to be "superhuman" but to be "fully human" - fully alive, existing in harmony with God, others, and creation. Contrary to conventional Christian platitudes, "nowhere does Scripture hold out heaven as our ultimate goal. Instead, it informs us that heaven is merely the first leg of a journey that is round-trip... we earthlings were made to live here - on this planet. This is where we belong. We're already home" (p. 74). For this reason, the climax of God's redemptive plan involves bringing heaven to earth through the person of Christ and the power of the Spirit. The emphasis of the gospel is not on "us with God" somewhere in heaven, but on "God with us" here on a transformed and renewed earth.

We frustrate authentic spirituality when we attempt to be more "spiritual" than God. In his own inimitable way, C. S. Lewis calls us to remember this.

There is no use trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.

True spirituality does not seek to transcend creation. Instead, true spirituality meets God in the midst of God's creation. Embracing a creation spirituality liberates us to be what God intends us to be.

So often people see their lives in tension between their spiritual activities and the rest of their lives. This is not the case. Christianity is a freeing experience which should make us open our arms to more of God's world and enjoy more, and in doing so understand the worth of every human being in this life more, which in turn will lead to more compassion for those people, and more interest in them, and truly more loving or our neighbor... After all, when we are saved, we are saved to something besides merely the privilege of running around in guilt-motivated frenetic Christian activity trying to save others. (Franky Schaeffer, Addicted to Mediocrity, 50)

We need to recover a spirituality that is incarnate, embodied, creational, and liberating - a spirituality that suits our human nature and strives to be "fully human" instead of seeking to escape creation. Of all people, we Christians should enjoy God's creation. After all, we believe God's word that most certainly declares creation good, indeed, very good!