I ought to
have put the following at the beginning of the last post:
"Caution:
Rambling Road Ahead"
After
hitting publish on the last post, I kept thinking about how much I
rambled. This post will hopefully get to the point and stay there.
As we went
through the difficulty of considering leaving one church family in
search of another, many things went through my mind. I wanted to
find another church home where we could "settle down." I
thought of leaving our old home for a "new" one. I
wondered how long we would be in this home...I hoped our children
would finish their "growing up years" here.
But then I
would hear the chorus to the song, “Where I Belong.” This is NOT
where I belong. My real home is in heaven. In my heart, I yearn to
be able to put down roots, to know that THIS is where our children
will grow up. To know that THIS is the church our princess will be
married in. To know that THIS is where we will house our
grandchildren. The problem is, THIS is NOT my home.
Paul says
this in his letter to the Philippians:
But
our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a
Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that
enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our
lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Philippians
3:20-21, NIV84
If
I am to “eagerly await” the time when Jesus comes again, I can
not get too comfortable here in this world. The Lord has been
removing many of my “comforts” to help me learn this Truth in a
more “hands on” way over the past year. And while I've learned
that air conditioning is a comfort I don't absolutely need. I've
also learned that I ought not to get so comfortable with a church
that I'm not willing to move when the Lord says, “Move!”
Does
that mean I throw away the relationships from that church family?
NO! Does it mean I am bitter toward that church family? NO! Does
it mean I need to broaden my world? YES!
I
thought of this before drifting off to sleep last night. Think of a
box. A large box. Put a pinhole in the box. Look through the
pinhole to see what's inside the box. How much can you see? What if
you put a pencil size hole in the box? You could see more then, but
you'd still be “blind” to parts of the box.
Now
consider the maker of the box. He is inside of it and all around it.
He sees every nook and cranny. That's our Lord. I need to trust
His viewpoint, not mine. So while I look around the box through my
pinhole wondering how this or that will work 10 or 15 years down the
road, the Lord is saying, “Don't worry. I know things you don't.
I've got a plan, and it's better than you could ever imagine.”
And
every time I step out in faith and follow Him out of my comfort zone,
my pinhole is enlarged ever so slightly. Why? Because I'm opening
the eyes of my heart to see more from His perspective than mine.
For
now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred)
reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then
[when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face!
Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and
understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been
fully and clearly known and understood [by God].
1
Corinthians 13:12, Amplified
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