When I was growing up, you’d often hear people refer to someone else as being “so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good”. The crazy thing is that this was meant as an insult, not a compliment. Yes, there are actually Christians who think that if you become too focused on Heaven that you will actually be useless on earth.
The way I read the Bible, the exact opposite is true. As we become more intimately acquainted with the Spirit of God, His power explodes through us and we are able to accomplish far more than we ever imagined. And yes, we do that right here on earth because we are so Heavenly minded.
It is simply not possible to be too Heavenly minded. The more we attain the mind of Christ, the more we will be about His mission. No one was ever more Heavenly minded than Christ, and no one ever did more earthly good than He did. I can only guess that people who accuse others of being too Heavenly minded are in fact jealous of how close those people seem to walk with Christ. When we begin to buy into the lies of our culture and desire the same things that the world desires, we get so out of balance that we can begin to cast an envious and wary eye on those who are living lives we perceive to be more spiritual than our own.
We were designed to live in relationship with God. Our whole purpose in life is to live the way Jesus lived, with a focus on bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. We should be growing more Heavenly minded every day. Each morning should begin with dedicating ourselves to God, begging Him to empty us of everything that is not Him and consuming us with His Spirit. The only chance we have of living a life that is worth anything is to live it with our entire focus on God and His Kingdom.
When we are completely Heavenly minded, that’s when we will be able to do the most earthly good. After all, the best we can do on earth is to bring some of God’s Kingdom into it. We do this by reflecting Jesus into the world. That means surrendering to His will in even the small details of life. If what we are doing, thinking, or saying is not adding to the Kingdom, there is a strong likelihood that it is actually diminishing it.
Don’t be afraid of being Heavenly minded. You can’t get too much God. You can’t look too much like Jesus. Never let anyone tell you that you’ve become too obsessed with Christ. As long as you are growing to look more like Jesus every day, you are doing exactly what God desires for you. That is His will for your life that you look more and more like His Son, Jesus. When we look like Jesus, we will do the things that Jesus did. We will further the mission of Christ and build God’s Kingdom. It takes a Heavenly minded person to do that kind of good here on earth.