This week, I had the unique privilege of being asked to give the invocation for the City of Tucson's Mayor and Council Meeting.  It was a lovely experience and put me in mind of the many references in the Teachings for the New Church on how important it is to serve the community and country we have been given from a love for the higher good it serves.

As I was reflecting on these things, I came across a 1935 New Church Life article which I thought so beautifully summarized how our willingness to serve such higher good here helps prepare us for heaven.  I share it here in the hope that it similarly inspires you!

Love and Peace,

Ethan

A life of preparation for heaven is not a life of faith separated from charity, but a life in which the two are so conjoined as to make a one. Usefulness to others for the sake of others must be one's chief occupation. And in what realm of life can a desire to be of use to others find greater scope than in the civil affairs of one's community and country? 

We are taught in the Word that one who does not love their community and their country, endeavoring at all times to be of service to them and to benefit them, can hardly enter into the Lord’s heavenly kingdom, which is a kingdom of use to the neighbor.

The love of the church, that is, of all the principles of spiritual good and truth for which the church stands, and thus the love of the Lord Himself; this and the love of country constitute the two highest forms of the expression of charity, or of love toward the neighbor. 

To love the neighbor collectively, or to love good and truth in people collectively, is a discretely higher form of neighborly love than the love of a few individually. The cultivation of these two loves eminently fits us for (not just temporal, but) eternal happiness.