Camping

I don't really mind camping.

I'm not a 'hard-core' proper camper: I have an air bed and have just been in search of a socket to plug in my hair straighteners (camping and curly hair is not a good combination). But I do quite enjoy a couple of nights in the outdoors.

I like the fresh air and the fact that you can see the stars and the fact that life slows down a for a little bit.

However, I think that I like these things most because I know that I am only camping for a few days.

If it became a lifestyle, if I knew I had to live in a tent for the test of my life, I think the novelty would soon wear off and I would get tired of it.

I'd find the space confining and restricting; I'd get annoyed that I can't stand up properly; I'd find it irritating that I couldn't always have a hot shower. My air bed would soon deflate and so would my enthusiasm.

The Bible says that it's the same with our earthly bodies: the physical bodies that we have here on earth are like tents: they are temporary and a poor reflection of the heavenly and eternal and glorious body that we will have after death:

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh."

[Corinthians 5:1,2,4 NLT]

Our earthly bodies are 'tents' which are fine for our time here and the work that God gives us to do. However, they are flimsy and sometimes uncomfortable, and that reminds us that they are not our permanent homes. We have an eternal and permanent house to look forward to.

I love this translation from the same passage in 2 Corinthians:

"He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less...Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead."

[2 Corinthians 5:5-6 MSG]

So, in the same way that at the end of the week I'll be glad to get back to my more substantial flat, when I am frustrated with my earthly body, I can take comfort that it is not my permanent residence.

Home Sweet Home

Last year, I became a grown up.  I bought my first home: a lovely little flat.

I have since spent my time and my pennies decorating it and furnishing it with pretty things.  And I have thoroughly enjoyed choosing furniture and photo frames and fabric.  I have picked out things that I like and that suit me.

I have made it my own.

In the same way, Jesus told His disciples that He was going ahead of us to prepare a room for each of us in His Kingdom:

"There is plenty of room for you in my Father's home.  If that weren't so, would I have told you that I'm on my way to get a room ready for you?  And if I'm on my way to get your room ready, I'll come back and get you so you can live where I live."

[John 14:2-4 MSG]

Sometimes, we long for this heavenly home, because we feel out of place and uncomfortable "in the world".  We feel as though we don't belong.

And that is true.  As Christians, our home is no longer in this world.  Jesus calls us out of a world which denies Him and doesn't acknowledge Him as Lord and into real relationship with Him.

"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world."

[John 15:19 NIV]

A "Christian catchphrase" that gets tossed around a lot is "in the world, but not of the world." Whilst we still live in the world and are called to engage with it, we are only temporary residents here. This is not our home.

Perhaps we should see ourselves as 'renting' whilst we are on earth.  We can enjoy the experience and enter into it fully, without being shaped by it, because we know it isn't permanent:

"Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think."

[Romans12:2 NLT]

Let's never lose sight of the fact that this isn't our final residence.  This is not our Home Sweet Home.

These are some of the words from Where I Belong  by Building 429 [video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOtsB4O1p3o]

         "All I know is I'm not home yet

         This is not where I belong

         Take this world and give me Jesus

         This is not where I belong."