“The Kingdom of God is what all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers. We glimpse it at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know. We catch sight of it when at some moment of crisis a strength seems to come to us that greater than our own strength. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it.”
http://www.joshuagraves.com/
Josh is the kind of preacher person that makes you want to go to church. He makes you think.
He is also the kind of person who is making me yearn to be homesick.
For too long I have prided myself on being able to feel at "home" quickly in faraway places. Pride...a prickly word. I have ignored the fact that this world is not my home. The Kingdom of God IS where I belong. I want to be a good citizen of that Kingdom as I have tried to be a good citizen of this world.
I love glimpsing my better and wiser self...and being stronger than I knew I could be. Now, to realize and recognize that these moments come when I am living as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Now, to figure out what citizenship in this Kingdom means to my living in this world...
I love adventures so this must surely qualify!
Josh is the kind of preacher person that makes you want to go to church. He makes you think.
He is also the kind of person who is making me yearn to be homesick.
For too long I have prided myself on being able to feel at "home" quickly in faraway places. Pride...a prickly word. I have ignored the fact that this world is not my home. The Kingdom of God IS where I belong. I want to be a good citizen of that Kingdom as I have tried to be a good citizen of this world.
I love glimpsing my better and wiser self...and being stronger than I knew I could be. Now, to realize and recognize that these moments come when I am living as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Now, to figure out what citizenship in this Kingdom means to my living in this world...
I love adventures so this must surely qualify!
Indeed it does!
ReplyDeleteSo, then, let the adventure begin!
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, being adaptable here on the earth is actually a sign that you ARE homesick. That you are not stuck in one physical place really rather indicates that you see the entire world as a gift, and that you already carry your home with you. That is the heart of Christianity - that your home and hope are in Christ, and that you do his work, loving his love, feeding his sheep wherever you are. It means your spirit, perhaps without realizing it, already had that trust. Some people are spiritually gifted, I think - they carry that strong love with them when they are born, and it allows them a connection some people never get all their mortal lives long. It's in the nature of the spirit - people were all different from each other from the beginning.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that's another discussion. The old saying, "Home is where the heart is," definitely dovetails with "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be." If you were fixed on earthly treasure, you might not be so able to fly so free.
You know, since I wrote that I have been thinking and thinking about what I said...one of the hazards, or rewards, of putting your thoughts into writing! And I came to where you are suggesting. Since my heart tries to live as God wants, then I can be "at home" wherever I end up. God's kingdom is all around me...the kids I teach, the people I meet, the people I don't ever meet. the beauty I see, and the pain I feel.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you came to comment, K. Welcome.