Temporary lodging
This week's goodness is on 2 Corinthians 5:1-10:
I was digging around in 2 Corinthians when I came across these verses. Paul does a good job of describing our predicament here on Earth. We think the life we live here is everything, because it's all we've ever known, but in the sense of eternity it's the tip of the iceberg. It's like a hotel room, or a temporary apartment you stay in while your house is being built for you. It's like camping. Your basic needs are met, but nobody would argue that camping is easier and more luxurious than living in a house. If it was, we'd camp instead!
Imagine your time on earth being as temporary as a tent you use on a camping trip. If something happens on a camping trip, whether to your tent or to your equipment, does it really matter outside of the context of being able to make it back to your house safely? Unless it's a matter of life or death, you'll get over it. Imagine camping without remembering that you've got a house. You'd probably waste a lot of time running around trying to make a house that wouldn't even be as nice as the house you already have!
But that's how life here is. It's temporary. We worry about stuff that will affect us in eternity, because that matters when we're done here, but it's basically a camping trip for eternal beings, a place where we do without a lot of the comforts we'll have in eternity and rough it. Paul says we groan, the same as we groan and grumble when camping when we haven't had a shower in days and we're living off hot dogs and fish and stale bread. We know there's something more, and that we belong in that better place, yet we're here.
Even though we're enjoying the tent, we find ourselves longing for home. We want to be with God. We want the freedom that comes with being undying, unable to be injured permanently, complete at last. Things are rough. There are difficult challenges. We get sick. We guess wrong about things. We fight with each other.
God gave us the Holy Spirit to remind us of the eternal life. We have access to some of the things we have in the house, even though we're camping. We can get healing power. Our authoritative word over nature has backing. We know things we wouldn't know how to learn. We have peace and comfort despite the circumstances of our lives or our physical condition. Shame is lifted. We are patient with imperfection and our love outlasts anything that's thrown at it. They're shiny things you don't encounter naturally in the brutal wilderness of our earthly lives, and they stand out to people who have forgotten that we're camping. "How did you do that?" "Where did that come from?" "Why don't you hate that person?" "How is it that you're walking around after what happened to you in the accident?"
So while we'd prefer to be in eternity, there's something to be said for where we are now. It's where God wants us to be for now. He has work for us to do. He wants to show us that he's more than our senses can measure. But life here now matters, even if our death and struggles here don't. We'll be accountable for what we did, even as Christians, when our time here is done. So while it's good to die and be free, it's also good to be here and be obedient and face the challenges of life on Earth.
But remember that next time something bad happens or you get too caught up in chasing something you want. It's just temporary. Or as others have said, "It's all going to burn." Not having your way isn't going to matter in a thousand years. Having what you wanted isn't going to matter in a thousand years, but maybe the opportunity you passed up to get it might. At the same time, what you see isn't all there is. Do you need healing? A "get out of jail free" card for the circumstances you got yourself into? The Holy Spirit is there in our lives to give us a taste of "home" and arrive with a rescue if needed. Be aware of where you are, but don't forget where you're going.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
I was digging around in 2 Corinthians when I came across these verses. Paul does a good job of describing our predicament here on Earth. We think the life we live here is everything, because it's all we've ever known, but in the sense of eternity it's the tip of the iceberg. It's like a hotel room, or a temporary apartment you stay in while your house is being built for you. It's like camping. Your basic needs are met, but nobody would argue that camping is easier and more luxurious than living in a house. If it was, we'd camp instead!
Imagine your time on earth being as temporary as a tent you use on a camping trip. If something happens on a camping trip, whether to your tent or to your equipment, does it really matter outside of the context of being able to make it back to your house safely? Unless it's a matter of life or death, you'll get over it. Imagine camping without remembering that you've got a house. You'd probably waste a lot of time running around trying to make a house that wouldn't even be as nice as the house you already have!
But that's how life here is. It's temporary. We worry about stuff that will affect us in eternity, because that matters when we're done here, but it's basically a camping trip for eternal beings, a place where we do without a lot of the comforts we'll have in eternity and rough it. Paul says we groan, the same as we groan and grumble when camping when we haven't had a shower in days and we're living off hot dogs and fish and stale bread. We know there's something more, and that we belong in that better place, yet we're here.
Even though we're enjoying the tent, we find ourselves longing for home. We want to be with God. We want the freedom that comes with being undying, unable to be injured permanently, complete at last. Things are rough. There are difficult challenges. We get sick. We guess wrong about things. We fight with each other.
God gave us the Holy Spirit to remind us of the eternal life. We have access to some of the things we have in the house, even though we're camping. We can get healing power. Our authoritative word over nature has backing. We know things we wouldn't know how to learn. We have peace and comfort despite the circumstances of our lives or our physical condition. Shame is lifted. We are patient with imperfection and our love outlasts anything that's thrown at it. They're shiny things you don't encounter naturally in the brutal wilderness of our earthly lives, and they stand out to people who have forgotten that we're camping. "How did you do that?" "Where did that come from?" "Why don't you hate that person?" "How is it that you're walking around after what happened to you in the accident?"
So while we'd prefer to be in eternity, there's something to be said for where we are now. It's where God wants us to be for now. He has work for us to do. He wants to show us that he's more than our senses can measure. But life here now matters, even if our death and struggles here don't. We'll be accountable for what we did, even as Christians, when our time here is done. So while it's good to die and be free, it's also good to be here and be obedient and face the challenges of life on Earth.
But remember that next time something bad happens or you get too caught up in chasing something you want. It's just temporary. Or as others have said, "It's all going to burn." Not having your way isn't going to matter in a thousand years. Having what you wanted isn't going to matter in a thousand years, but maybe the opportunity you passed up to get it might. At the same time, what you see isn't all there is. Do you need healing? A "get out of jail free" card for the circumstances you got yourself into? The Holy Spirit is there in our lives to give us a taste of "home" and arrive with a rescue if needed. Be aware of where you are, but don't forget where you're going.
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