This House Ain't Big Enough For You! SO GET OUT! {The tale of a couple + an unwanted house guest}

SO

Home Not Home

Strangers and aliens. Sojourners and exiles. That's been a recurring theme these past few months. Part of the reason this place is so dang hard is because it's not home. The good news is we do have a home, and we are going there. Soon.

When this phrase, "strangers and aliens", first gripped me it was in 1 Peter 2:11, where Peter reminds the believers scattered because of persecution that they are strangers and aliens in this world, so they should live like they are waiting on home and not try to get too comfy in a place they aren't made for anyway.

I've taken much solace from the fact that this broken place isn't the final destination. On the days when everything seems to be going wrong, I can remember that, as my friend Andrew says, "This world is fading, along with it's promises...and you who've held out hope will rise into His arms."

Last night, in our Life Together Group, we read Ephesians 2 together and this familiar phrase struck me in a new way. Paul is reminding the Gentile readers that they used to be excluded from the people and the promises of God, but now because of Jesus, they are "no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household (v. 19)."

So, they used to be strangers and aliens to God and His people. Now, they are strangers and aliens to the world. One way or another, we are going to be strangers and aliens. The issue is to whom will we choose to belong? I know where I wanna land.

"Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked." (Psalm 84:10)

If feeling at home on earth means being cut off from you God, forget it! I would rather just stand at your door for one day than to feel cozy here on earth forever. "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." (Psalm 84:5)

I'll leave it with this quote from Gregg Allison I found as I looked up that 1 Peter verse on strangers and aliens (or, as some translations say, "sojourners and exiles"):

"...the church, living in the boundary epoch between the two advents of Jesus Christ, is composed of people who live their short (earthly) lives away from their home for the purpose of being on mission for and with God." 

What a beautiful truth! We are not home. Not in this world. God is our home, and though we aren't as fully with Him as we will be one day, even now He's given us His Spirit as a deposit  guaranteeing our inheritance. Just like Jesus left home to come to earth and lived on mission for and with God, He now enables us to do the same for this short time (70, maybe 80 years, as Psalm 90 says) we have on earth. What a privilege! That we could be made like Jesus in that way staggers the mind.

So I'm praying with the psalmist:

"Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12)

 

Trial + Steadfastness = Joy

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-3, emphasis mine)

Tams is learning James and quoted these verses to me Wednesday. And the word steadfastness jumped out. It's been appearing quite frequently lately. Most prominently in Psalm 5:7

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,    will enter your house.I will bow down toward your holy temple    in the fear of you.

God's love for His people is steadfast. Because God is steadfast. And good thing, because we sure are fickle. I have recently been enjoying the fact that no mater my shortcomings, God steadfastly loves me. Because He is God, and He has set His love on me in Jesus, and He does not change. 

James says we should count trials joy because that testing of our faith produces steadfastness. Trials create steadfastness in us. Steadfastness -- the very character of God. What?! What a privilege that God would grant that we mere creatures could experience what He experiences when He is steadfast. 

I don't want trials. Because they are harddd. But I do want more of God. If He ordains that more of Him right now means trials that cause me to have more of Him, then I will count it joy.

Winter, Spring, Summer, Or Fall

{There's a painting my mom's mom made of this one scene throughout the four seasons. It sits on a mantle in their living room, and I've always been drawn to it. I think our hearts are made to resonate with this sort of thing---a tree weathering the changes it experiences in winter, spring, summer, and fall. In fact, this post is largely inspired by this sermon that I listened to this morning on just that. Go check it out.}

That first crisply cool September morning...ah...I could just drink it in, I think. I feel like I can breathe better that morning than on any other morning. The first one happened just a couple weeks ago. I went out early in the morning, just as the sun was coming up, and I stood on the front porch barefoot, just to feel the cold under me. I inhaled---deep---fresh. "Yes, fall is here."

Historically, fall has always been my favorite season. The cool air. The clothes. The football. And the leaves---the colors of the leaves make my heart ache in that good kind of way! The food---pumpkins and apple cider and all things yummy that come at Thanksgiving. And that smallest little possibility that in the middle of North Carolina, on a just-the-right-temperature-day, there could be snow. It's a time of reprieve from the heat of summer, and a time of anticipation---of snow, of Christmas, of the next year not too far in the distance.

If you made me pick a season today, I'd say fall. But...then, I love winter, too. I mean...snow. That's all you really need to know. I love the way things get all frozen over when it gets really cold. I love seeing your breath when you stand outside talking in the morning. I love warm coffee on a cold morning. I love fireplaces. I love cinnamon. I love pretty lights everywhere. And, hello, I made my grand entrance into the world mid-winter! What's not to love about that? But, winter-lover that I am, by about February, I'm longing for Spring.

Spring is just bursting with new life! The flowers just explode! What kind of joy is better than seeing that first tree bloom after a long, cold winter? Doesn't it make your heart leap inside you? There's so much promise---so much hope being realized. The winter has passed. Things begin to thaw. We were made for spring. My favorite line in a book I love called Notes From The Tiltawhirl is this one where he talks about dear family members who have died. He talks about graveyards as gardens. Many seeds planted; waiting. The resurrection, he says---well, it's gonna be "a glorious spring." I can't drive past a cemetery these days without longing for that Spring. But you know, even Spring has its chilly days...even Spring gives way to Summer.

Summer is warmth. Light. Verdant. And Summer is coming. One day we'll have no need for a sun because the LORD Himself will be our light! That FULL life is coming. I long for that full life to be here now.

How can I pick a favorite season, now, I wonder? Maybe I don't have to. Maybe, He really has made everything beautiful in its time. Maybe, I was always meant to enjoy Him in all of the seasons. Maybe, each season has been appointed for a different purpose---and the One thing that remains the same throughout the seasons is God. I think,maybe, I am growing up. Learning to walk with God in the seasons of life that I am enjoying, and the ones that I don't yet feel ready for. Lately, I feel a bit like a little child who is still enjoying summer, and isn't yet ready for fall---pouting because the warm temperatures and the poolside days are gone for another year. I mean, we'd all like to have it only be the way we want it all the time. But God knows what we need. He really is good. And He really is using all things to work together for the good of those who love him and called according to His purpose---to make us like Jesus. Man, I just want to enjoy Him. In every season. Even the next one that I am a little afraid to enter. He'll be there.