Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Strangers

You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever. Ps 16:11 (NASB) I must confess, my mind is swirling this morning. God has laid seemingly individual things on my heart only to bring them all back together again. It started with a reminder last night from winter Bible study that this world is not my home. It's in our songs and our speech, but do we truly live that way? The Christian recording group Downhere has a song on their most recent album Ending is Beginning entitled "My Last Amen." Musically it's a strange song, but the more I've listened to the lyrics, the more drawn in I've become. Just a few days ago I heard one part of the song for the first time. Phrases like "the joy is in the waiting" and "it's good to be unsatisfied" jumped out at me as they sang of living the fullness of this life in order to fully anticipate what we have coming when we stand in the presence of God. To be honest, I haven't lived that way. I am a very visual person, and I cannot begin to visualize the reality of eternity in the presence of God. So, it's a bit frightening. What I have here is known. What I will have there is unknown...for now. My desire is to understand what's coming. Just this morning I read George MacDonald's thoughts on understanding versus obeying. It caught me quite powerfully. We can never understand before we obey. We have to obey first. Then the understanding will begin to dawn. I have been trying to grasp the concept of heaven first so that I can then truly long for eternity there. My challenge today is to step out in obedience - to live like this world is not my home whether I understand it or not! To long for that unseen city whether I can grasp the concept or not. As I do that, God will give me all the preview I need as He draws me closer to Himself day by day. What a joyous journey life is! A journey that just barely begins during this brief moment we can life and then continuous through eternity!

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