WWL Podcast 0560 - An Eternal Perspective

So many thoughts pass through our minds in a day, but for most of us, few of them have much to do with what God has suggested we think about. What might happen if we could change our perspective? May this podcast by host Julie Harwick bless you!

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Welcome to Women World Leaders podcast. I’m your host, Julie Harwick. Thank you for joining me today as we celebrate God’s grace in our lives, in this ministry and around the world.
Sylvester Foster Porter was the pastor of the small Christian and Missionary Alliance church we attended during my junior high years. In his early 70’s, he and his wife, Helen, were recently retired from being missionaries to the Philippines. They were old school. She played the organ and I never saw her wear anything but a dress, pantyhose and low-heeled pumps – never! He preached through the bible, verse by verse, taking more than two years to get through Revelation. He had several mannerisms that always brought inappropriate giggling from my best friend and me. Mostly bald, he had only a ring of white hair on the sides and back of his head, but it was full and thick. He had a habit of saying, “Oh Beloved,” when he wanted to emphasize something while he clapped his hands to each side of his head, making the hair he had instantly disappear. Seeing him go completely bald just like that always got us going. Whenever he referred to his youth, he’d say, “when I was young and red-headed…” Although I knew he was referring to the color of his hair, I always got a mental image of a small boy with not only red hair, but an entirely red head from the neck up. We were probably 11 at the time, so we were very easily amused. Helen had a common phrase she was known for as well. I can still see her shaking her curly white head and saying to other women of the church, “he’s so heavenly minded, he’s no earthly good!” I didn’t really understand what that meant, but the other ladies would nod and laugh, so I filed it away as something I’d figure out when I was older.
As I’ve thought about her odd comment over the years, I think I know what she meant, but I don’t believe it’s actually possible. Pastor Porter clearly loved the Lord. He loved to study God’s Word, meditate on it and share it with others. I suspect that when it was time for household chores or to listen to her plans for the day, he was often distracted by the many spiritual questions he was pondering. I’m sure she often found that annoying, but on the other hand, I know many women who would give anything to see their husbands occupied with thoughts of God and His truths.
Is it possible to be so heavenly minded, that you’re no earthly good? Colossians 3:12 tells us, “Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth.” That seems like a pretty clear directive and confirmation that Pastor Porter’s mind was exactly where it needed to be. Although Helen Porter was the only person I ever heard use the phrase, “so heavenly minded, he’s no earthly good,” it was a common notion – at least during the life of Christian author C. S. Lewis. In referencing this popular saying, he strongly disagreed. “On the contrary, most of us are so earthly minded that we are of no heavenly or earthly good. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.”
We are so easily distracted by things that seem to demand our immediate attention. We have jobs, household chores, families to manage, appointments to keep, friends who need us…the list goes on. And add to that Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, our favorite tv shows, movies and sports teams. With all of our obligations, we deserve a little me time, don’t we? There are so many demands on our time and energy, swirling around us like an ever-strengthening whirlpool, threatening to consume us. How could we possibly find time to focus on heaven and things we can barely begin to comprehend? ...