I feel as though I'm living in two worlds: there's the physical world that my mind sees- there are shiny cars with heated leather seats; there are nice clothes I want to buy so I "look good" even though I can get by just fine with the thirty t-shirts I own and five pairs of jeans; there's cool "stuff" I want to own, like a Mac computer, even though the PC I have works fine and does all that I need it to do; there's another pair of shoes I want to have just because they will "go with" this outfit better than the seven other pairs I already own; there are the "beautiful people" I want to be friends with and the "handsome" guys that I wouldn't mind dating.
Then there's the spiritual world, the one I can't see with my eyes, but I feel it with my heart. Sometimes my eyes sense this world, like when I look at a sunset, but it's not actually this world I see, rather, there's a sense I have inside me when I see the colors mixing in the sky with the clouds that alerts me to something far greater and more beautiful than what my feeble eyes behold. My mind thinks it has seen beauty, but I don't think it can really comprehend true beauty at all. Often when I look at a sunset, I feel as though God is right there in it. Or maybe it's just a glimpse of Him. But there's something there that stirs my heart. There's something there that reminds me that this world is not all there is.
I've seen a lot of t-shirts and bumpers stickers that say "In it not of it." The saying is a reminder to Christians that we are in this physical world that our minds see, but we are not of it: we were made for something more. As Jon Foreman sings in his song "This is Home" (sung at the end of the Prince Caspian movie, one of my favorites): I am "created for a world I've never known/this is home/now I'm finally where I belong, where I belong/yeah this is home."
I believe inside every person there is this sense that the world they live in is not the world they were created for. Why would a world full of pain and suffering be where we belong? What's the point to living out this life if this is all there is? That's why I believe there has to be more. The sense of hope I have- and I know I share it with a number of other people- is too strong for me to deny that there is nothing worth hoping for. My heart knows something that my mind can't see or comprehend: it knows that it was made for something great, something the mind has never known.
In John 15 Jesus says "you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world." I know that this isn't my home: I feel it all the time, and yet my mind is easily fooled into a state of comfort that makes it so easy to feel "at home" here. I fall into the trap of consumernism and buy into the things the world tells me I need. Sometimes my heart reminds me, though, of the meaningless of material possessions, and it's then that I try to refocus on what God has called me to.
1 John 2:15-17 is a great reminder to be aware of the things my flesh/mind desire: 15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
2 Corinthians 5 is a great passage that reminds me of where my real dwelling is: the home that I was created for:
Our Heavenly Dwelling
1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7We live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
I also really love The Message version of this passage:
2 Corinthians 5
1-5For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we'll never have to relocate our "tents" again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we're tired of it! We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less. (emphasis added)
6-8That's why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we'll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.
9-10But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that's what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we'll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what's coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad.
11-14That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It's no light thing to know that we'll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That's why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. God alone knows how well we do this, but I hope you realize how much and deeply we care. We're not saying this to make ourselves look good to you. We just thought it would make you feel good, proud even, that we're on your side and not just nice to your face as so many people are. If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.
God has put a sense of Him in our hearts, alerting our minds to the home He's prepared for us, the place where we truly belong. That's why I so often feel out of place in this world: it's because I am!
Romans 12, The Message version, is a great encouragement for me to try and take my mind and align it with my heart, renewing my mind so that I can be transformed to be a person who lives with an eternal mindset, remembering that although I am in this world, I am not of it:
Place Your Life Before God
1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking."
My constant goal each day is to remember where my true home is, and to not allow myself to feel comfortable with the world I live in. Once I start feeling comfortable, it's then that I lose sight of the place where I belong. When I lose sight of that place, I lose sight of my purpose. When I lose sight of my purpose, then I lose sight of who I am, and I cannot forget who I am: I cannot forget that I am "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139), that I am God's "poema"- His "masterpiece", and that I was created to do good works that God prepared for me to do (Ephesians 2:10) so that people might know God and that God may be glorified through me. When I forget who I am I fall into the trap of believing that I am nothing, and that is one of the greatest tragedies.
1 Peter 2:9
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
