The long view

A couple of quotes to consider:

In 1840, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that, “preachers in America are continually coming down to earth. Indeed they find it difficult to take their eyes off it. The better to touch their hearers, they are forever pointing out how religious beliefs favor freedom and public order, and it is often difficult to be sure when listening to them whether the main object of religion is to procure eternal felicity in the next world or prosperity in this.”

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. -- C. S. Lewis

In matters of faith, it's very easy to put the cart before the horse. It's true Christ said He had come that we might "have life, and have it to the full." Unfortunately, our tendency is to think the present world is the measure of that life. It's but a part of it. Just as obedience to Christ flows from a grateful understanding of what He did to provide that new life, the best things in the present from our pursuit of holiness for the next. The common grace that benefits society is but a faint reflection of the saving grace available to those who will accept it. We hear that churches need to be 'relevant,' but that's often meant to be merely practical for the here and now. In reality, those that effectively minister provide "strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow."