Have you ever had something so devastating, so challenging happen to you that you were brought to your knees, crying out for help?

We are born into this world, all are born

Some have parents to care for them, other have caretakers

We have a home, some big, some very small

We go to school, some private, some public

We get a job, some climb the ladder, others scrape by

We get our own home, some own, some rent

We have our own children, some one, some more

We die, all will die

And history, the beat goes on…. It’s beyond our comprehension that we don’t really live here, that the here and now is just our temporary home, that we are passing through. I visualize it much like a train with people getting off at different stops to go to their eternal home. We wave them off knowing that we will see them one day soon.

The problem for most of us is that this is all we know as we build out nest (homes, investments, insurance, education,achievements, organizations). We create an insulation around our lives to protect and care for ourselves and our loved ones. However, when something tragic happens we realize we are not in control even as much as we’d like to think that we are. The time and effort we spend on controlling our lives is what can get us stuck, where desperation sets in, where hopelessness lives. One of the reasons that God commands us to love Him and seek Him is because he has eternal treasures He wants to instill on the inside of us. God is very clear about not becoming too wrapped up in this world.

The apostle John writes, “Do not to love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Why? “Because all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world is passing away, and all that it craves; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 Jn 2:15-17). In the first chapter of his letter, John tells us it is not possible to “claim fellowship with God” and pattern our lives after the world. He repeats this theme throughout his letter. He tells us we must “walk in the light” (1 Jn 1:7), and that we cannot simultaneously walk in the light and walk in darkness. As believers, we are not to love the world’s ways or the world’s goods. To John, the “world” represents everything that is contrary to a life of faith in God.

 Another reason we struggle with this injunction is because we have so little understanding of who we really are. For the most part, we still see ourselves as “creatures of this world,” even though the Bible says we are not of the world. Our day-by-day identification is still more with the world than with heaven. However, the more we continue meditating on the Word our comprehension of the fact that we are “born from above” increases, and we find ourselves saying, “I am not on earth for the purpose of simply enjoying all of its toys… I am not on the earth for the purpose of seeing what kind of an estate I can build… I’m on the earth to serve the One who redeemed me and walk intimately with Him. Progressively, I am identifying more with heaven and less with this world… I find that my affections are increasingly becoming set on things above, not on the things here below (Col 3:2-3). You see, we are “on assignment” from heaven to show forth the will of the Father, and the life of Christ, in our mortal bodies. We only need the “material things of this world” as they are required to fulfill that assignment. We no longer identify with this world, and have no covetous lust for all the things that are in it. The truth of the matter is, we don’t feel at home on earth anymore. This environment of sin, sickness, war, politics, hate, and poverty does not seem “natural” to us anymore — neither does the deceitfulness of riches and the craving for other things.

God allows storms because oftentimes storms are what draws us closer to Jesus and wakes us up from our hedonistic views. He is opening our souls and if we are wise, changing our ways. Helping us to replace control for courage, fear for faith, hate for love, pessimism for passion, and death for life. Life is in Christ and Christ only.

Get into His word, let it wash over you, absorb into your being as it will bring you the true riches this world will never offer.

Life is amazing, and then it’s awful, and then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and the awful it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, let go through the awful, and relax during the ordinary. This is living! The heartbreaking, the soul- healing, it’s all beautiful if you hold onto God through it all. xo

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