This World Is Not My Home

Between August 29 and October 30, 2006, we have had 3 difficult tragedies among our church family and friends. All three involved someone dying. We are not the primary grievers. Others are suffering deeply. I am watching, and I don't like it. One of these situatioins involved an intentional violent act that took the life of a young woman. It crushes. In The Gulag Archipelage, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, "The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart."

In increments the world has become more and more uncomfortable to me. From time to time, the awareness of the temporary state of the world has traversed my mind. In Cote d'Ivoire, 1998, walking the streets of Abidjan I realized, "I am a citizen of the United States of America--not by my choice. I could renounce my citizenship and become a citizen of another country. I will not always be an American--but I will always be a Christian." Then in Kenya in 2003, I saw my life as a dot on the timeline of eternity. The dot is only a speck.

Through those times I still felt a great deal of comfort in the world, but that has changed. Maybe it won't be as deep, but I think of Paul's words to the Philippians, "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself" Philippians 3:20-21.