Working on Believing

I've just finished reading 'Room' by Emma Donoghue.

 

I only got it out of the library yesterday and I have hardly put it down.  It is one of the most beautiful and mesmerising books I have ever read.  It is about a five-year old boy, Jack, who has grown up in a single room, without ever knowing anything of the outside world.  He believes that everything he sees on TV is just 'TV' - it's not real.  But one day, his Ma tells him that there really is a world outside.

He struggles to take this in and to believe that it is real.  And he says, "I'm working on believing."

 

Isn't that true for all of us?

 

Aren't we all working on believing and growing in trusting?

Believing in God.  Believing in His goodness.  Believing in His faithfulness.  Believing He really does care and He really does know us.  Believing He has a plan to bless us and prosper us.  The list of things we are working on believing could stretch on and on.

In the Bible, there's a story of a conversation Jesus had about believing with a man whose son had suffered from seizures since he was little.  The man told Jesus,

“It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

[Mark 9:21-24 NIV, emphasis mine]

Everything is possible for him who believes.  I don't believe this.  Yet.  But I want to.

We are all working on believing.  And God will help us if we ask Him.

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."