Not My Home

I woke up too early and couldn't fall asleep again this morning, thinking about all the things that were wrong with the world (or with my little world), and frustrated at not being able to make things be "as they ought to be" - whether it relates to getting large groups of ladies together to pray for missions - or the thought of some wacko liberal getting elected as president next year (neither of which are under my control).

So often I carry with me a vague downcast spirit, because so much is wrong with the world. People we know of get sick and die. Children get inoperable tumors. Friends who wish for children are infertile. Fruit trees die of bugs and disease (ok, maybe that's not in the same category - but it's still disappointing). Work (for husband and friends) becomes unfulfilling.

We are chasing "the American Dream" - that elusive ideal of a great job, happy children, a nice house, and healthy bodies. And we want it without death, pain, disease, or sorrow added in. We imagine that heaven can exist on this earth, and are downcast when it never materializes.

This world will never be heaven - not till it is made new. If we but realized this, and lived for what really lasts - the things unseen - then all the disappointments would not drag us down so much.

We would see Earth as but the place we sojourn in, and not as home. We would remember that the goal we pursue here is not, a worry-free, pain-free, disease-free life; it is rather, to bring glory to God in the midst of the trials of life.

God doesn't want us to get comfortable here. He sends us trials and disappointments to remind us that this is not Home; to help us to live for what we do not see. To live by faith, and not by sight. To love Him the Giver, instead of making idols of His gifts. To be happy in God and not in circumstances.

To live here in America as though we were our friends in the Far East; they don't settle down in their adopted country and try to make it be "the good life" there, and get downcast every time there is a difficulty. They go, knowing there will be daily hardships, and accepting those, having as their goal, to glorify God among the heathen, rather than to pursue a trial-free, pain-free life. If we lived so here, as strangers in an adopted land, rather than as citizens who strived for comfort, we would rejoice in God and labor for Him with greater zeal.

This world is not my home, I'm just a-passin' through...