This Life Holds Nothing for Me… or does it?

This Life Holds Nothing for Me… or does it?

Many Christian circles – especially among those truly trying to serve God – have come forward with some righteous rallying cries…

This world is not my home!

This life holds nothing for me!

If I can just make it to heaven… it will be all right there!

You can hear these in songs, sermons, blog posts and even sermons from well meaning Christians trying to encourage the faithful to live for God and eschew the evils of this world. We even have songs, brands, t-shirts, poems and books with these titles and thoughts.

Proponents of this “not of this world” type of living point to verses like 1 Corinthians 7:31 and John 17:14 to lend credence to this principle. This idea that here and now, we are to endure until Heaven, where the real living will begin. That in this world, our calling is to avoid the muck of sin so we can shine for Him someday.

And like every, what I will call “pious lie” (think “I’m dating Jesus”) there is strong grain of truth to it. But an even stronger underlying mis-truth.

What this life does hold is your one single chance to serve God in this temporal space.

To tell others about Him. To serve God as His disciple and hold hands with others on the same journey. The chance you have, here and now, to serve God will never be repeated in time, space or history.

This world may not be your eternal home, but it is where you live – and more importantly where you have been placed by a Master Strategist who has a plan for you here and now.

What people don’t see is in the verses like John 15:19 “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. That is why the world hates you.” is that there are very specific words that provides context – context most skip over.  In John 17:14-16 Jesus says: “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”  Again, look at the very subtle but clear context – the operative words are “belong” and “of”. Correct, we are not “of” the world and we do not “belong” to it. But we are most assuredly “in” it. It – this world –  is where we, by God’s sovereignty have been placed.  God is clearly telling us that we here, in this world, by intention.

Following a move to, say, Tennessee from Tacoma, you may well be from Tacoma, and Tennessee, no matter how long you live there will not be your home. But to say you are not there in Tennessee, do not live there, are not present there would be absurd.

Similarly, we as Christians are here on this planet – in this world, at this time. And as God has shown Himself to be the most intentional being ever, might there be some reason?

Of course there is. Woven throughout Scripture is the clear call to be more then travelers at the bus station of life waiting for a heavenly chariot to whisk us away while not letting the “rabble” of the city get too close to us.

We are here to bear fruit (John 15:5), we are here to showcase God’s love ( John 15:12), to serve as God’s ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20), to comfort our fellow travelers (2 Cor 1:4), and the list goes on… and on.

This life DOES have something for us… and while this world may not be “home” it is where we have been called to live out our days on earth. Days that God expects us to use for Him.

But here is the rub. Living for God, letting Him have His way in your life and serving Him in the darkness of this world as a living sacrifice is so much harder then living a detached “waiting for the heavenly bus” existence.

Be present for God in wherever He has placed you.

Live your life in full service, making it count for Him.

No one else will ever have the opportunity you have, here and now, in your place to do and be what God has offered you the chance to do and be.

Don’t miss what He has for you here, because you’re looking for then.