Okay, I have one more melancholy blog to post and then I promise I will have happy news to share!
There was a time in my life when Ecclesiastes was my favorite book of the Bible. The statements "Everything is meaningless!" (1:2, 3:19, 12:8) and "There is nothing new under the sun." (1:9) seemed to resonate completely with how I felt
Lately I have been feeling this again. I don't know what is going on inside of me, if it's an increased awareness of poverty, missions, and a global calling or if it is God, but I feel a lack of interest in worldly things. Not that I am high and mighty and don't enjoy shopping. Just that the last 4 or 5 movies I have watched have been disappointing and underwhelming due to the superficiality and self-centeredness depicted. TV is the same way, most of it seems so excessive and just a waste of time (even the Bears vs. Packers game, gasp). (I still like The Office.) The other day, I swear every conversation I heard revolved around money. I suppose this is due to the economy. I know firsthand it stinks, and I feel like all I have done since joining the Race is spend money! But I feel like everyone around me is just chasing the next thing- marriage, house, family, car, etc. to find happiness. I feel sorry for them, because one of the things that Africa taught me is that my joy should have no regard for my circumstances. This is something I am still learning, slowly.
Authors Max Lucado and Craig Groeschel use the illustration of taking a goldfish and placing him on a dry sandy beach. Will the goldfish be happy? No, of course not! What if we give him a fancy car, a playfish magazine (haha), and a million dollars? Nope. Is there anything we can give him that would make him happy on the beach? No, because he isn't created to live on the beach. Anything less than what he is meant for (water) will still leave him wanting. That is how we are. We are fooled into thinking the earth is our home and our job is to pursue happiness and make ourselves as comfortable as we can while we are here. And yet, we never seem to be satisfied. The novelty of new purchases and relationships eventually wears off. We always seem to want a little more and a little more money.
All my life I have yearned for belonging. At times, I have changed my patterns of dress, speech, etc. in an effort to fit in. But the people around me always seem to see past my chameleon facade and did not appreciate me as a poser. Other times, I have rebelled against the status quo in an effort to stand out or express my opinions. Deep down though, my heart still craves acceptance. At the same time, in my head I scream, "I don't belong here!" a lot. And though it is not the nice pretty message we want to hear, it is the truth. The fact of the matter is we do not belong here. We are aliens, as the Christian rapper Lecrae states.
Peter calls us "aliens, strangers, foreigners, temporary residents, pilgrims, sojourners" (funny I will literally be all of these things while on the World Race) The Message puts it like this: "Friends, this world is not your home, so don't make yourselves cozy in it." (2 Peter 2:11)
Jesus says, "…you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." (John 15:19) Ouch.
Here's the good news:
Paul talks about the "heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 (The Message version again):
They…accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that-heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.
