The funny thing is I remember consciously rejecting this song and others like it.  I had adopted the old “too heavenly minded” saying as my motto.  I wanted to make an impact.  I wanted to be relevant.  I decided to focus on the world around me.  There was only one problem.  I am a stranger in this land. That’s why I don’t feel like I belong anywhere.  I am looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.  Abraham lived as a stranger in the land of promise and so do we.  Eventually this world will be our home after God cleanses it and restores it.  We will live on the earth forever.   The heavenly city will come down and God will make His home here.  However, for the present, we are aliens.  When we were born again we became a new creation.  That’s not figurative language.  We literally are new spiritual creatures. We are not bound to the lusts of the flesh any longer.  We rule over our flesh.

Unfortunately many of us in the church today do not recognize our status as strangers.  In fact, we barely acknowledge eternity at all.  We treat the idea of eternity as a vague unknown that may or may not happen.  Therefore, we tend to disregard it entirely and focus on the here and now, leaving us with an empty and unsatisfied feeling.  This is a grave mistake.  The enemy would love to see us short-change ourselves by storing up our treasures for this age.  Have you ever thought about your life in light of eternity? The 80 or so years we spend in this realm are a drop in the bucket compared to forever.

We need to live our lives with eternity as our lens. Without this lens, we try to compensate for that “alien” feeling by filling ourselves up with relationships, material possessions, food, entertainment, and any other earthly vice you can think of.  When our lives our viewed through the lens of eternity, we recognize that we are supposed to feel alien and out of place.  In light of eternity, we can spend our very few short years in this life to store up treasures where it really counts—where we will live forever.

I encourage you to take a moment to try and wrap your mind around the idea of eternity.  It is difficult to grasp, but with the help of the Holy Spirit we can understand it and live for it.  Meditate on passages such as Hebrews 11-12 and Revelation 21-22.  The revelation of eternity is a life-long pursuit and the sooner you start the better.  This world is not your home—at least not in its present state.  Please don’t waste the years you have here. It’s a unique opportunity to prepare for forever.

Think about it.  When we celebrate Christmas, we’re celebrating the day a great King—THE GREATEST King—became a slave.  He didn’t just become a slave.  God stuffed himself into a body that He Himself created and came as a teeny tiny baby to nurse at a woman’s breast.   He wasn’t born in a great palace either.  He was born in a barn because nobody cared enough to make room for him.  They were just. too.  busy. And before you say that you would have slept in the street before you would allow Jesus to be born in a barn, let me ask you one question:  When is the last time you gave up your bed to a teenage mother?

John 1 tells us that apart from Jesus nothing came into being that has come into being.  In other words, He made this whole place…everything we see…even you and me.  It would be like you and I making a picture out of construction paper, crayons, and glue, then becoming a construction paper baby, dying for all of the construction paper people, and living forever as a construction paper person.

We call this the incarnation—it’s sounds so ethereal and holy, which it is, but it is also earthy and unpleasant. The Son of God was born in a barn to a teenage mother.  Everyone thought he was an illegitimate child.  There was no one there to help Mary.  Perhaps Joseph helped her, but considering the times, she more than likely gave birth to him alone.  She was bleeding.  He was dirty. This was not the silent night everyone sings about. Mary was surely moaning, if not screaming.  The cows were mooing.  The goats were bleating.  Jesus was crying.  Yes, the angels came and declared the news to the shepherds, but remember that shepherds weren’t exactly noble guests.  They were the equivalent of homeless people today.  They were loners who lived in the fields amongst sheep.  You didn’t exactly place your children in their laps when you saw them.

Yes folks, most of what we imagine about that original “Christmas” is all false.  Those little nativity scenes where everyone looks serene and majestic?  They’re completely wrong.  Did you know that the stables from that day would be illegal today?  They were so dirty that it would be considered animal cruelty to house any living thing there.  That’s where our Savior was born.  He owned all that there is, but He came through a teenage girl and was completely dependent upon her.  He was God, but He was helpless when He was born, and He chose to be.  She had to nurse him and potty train him.  Joseph probably taught him how to read and write.  Why did He do it?  I have no idea.  I wouldn’t have.  He’s completely unlike me, though, and boy am I glad.

Disclaimer:  This is a stream-of-conscious blog.  I’m literally working this out in my head as I write.  I am not out to accuse or condemn anybody.  This is simply my opinion and nothing more.  It is worth absolutely nothing.

I love music and art.  I think it exhibits part of God’s character, BUT I refuse to celebrate any human impulse.  I will praise God for his creative work in humanity, but I will not praise humanity itself.

I don’t even bother going into art museums any longer.  It’s too loud.  It’s as if every painting and sculpture in the place is screaming at me, saying, “Look how great we are!  Humanity can do anything.  We are limitless.”  It’s as if we’re trying to build that silly tower all over again.

Please understand.  Art is a beautiful gift given to us by God so that we can be like him.  I love to look at art and praise Him for the gift He has given…for the little portholes of beauty He has blessed us with in a sometimes dark and difficult life.  However, I find that the spirit with which these collections are often put together smells a bit of the offensive incense offered at the Tower of Babel.

It goes like this: I bake you a cake.  I use the best ingredients and work for hours to make sure it is beautiful and delicious.  I place the cake on the table.  Slice off a piece and give it to you.  You take a bite and look squarely at the cake and say, “You are absolutely scrumptious.  I have never tasted anything so good!  Thank you for tasting so good.”  It’s a silly picture but it is the exact same thing as celebrating human talent for the sake of human talent.

When Michael Jackson died, I must confess that I was a little surprised at the corporate mourning that took place in our country.  Not that I don’t think he deserved to be mourned.  Every person deserves that, but it almost seemed as if people worshiped his talents and accomplishments and were mourning the loss of those rather than the fact that one who bears the image of God had suffered an unfortunate and untimely death.

When we appreciate the talents of an individual, whether it is art, science, or something else, we must attribute those talents back to the One who gave them.  It is not to Michael Jackson’s credit that he had an incredible voice, was a great dancer and showman, and accomplished what no one ever thought he could.  It is to God’s credit.  Had God not chosen to give him those gifts, Michael Jackson would have been an ordinary guy with an ordinary life.

Maybe I’m just weird, but I find humanity worthy of zero glory and credit.  It all goes to God.

Whew.  I’m glad I got that off my chest.

Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;
For why should he be esteemed? – Isaiah 2:22 NASB

I’m not saying that you couldn’t benefit from a change of pace.  I am merely suggesting that it is entirely possible (and actually quite likely) that after a few months or years of your “new pace” you will end up in the same unhappy hole.  You see, I believe that discontentment is a gift from the Holy Spirit to push us deeper into the vast ocean that is the knowledge of God. The human heart was built to be fascinated.  That’s why you’re bored.  You can try and fascinate yourself with earthly things, but it will only last so long.  It only takes a certain amount of time to discover all there is to know about a new city or to learn a new profession.  You will eventually become bored with any new venture you take on. This fact, my friends, is a divine gift.  We simply cannot fill ourselves to satisfaction with the things of this realm.  We must be drinking from the well that will never run dry.  The Psalmist prophesies of the children of God, “As they make music they will sing, ‘All my fountains are in You(Psalm 87:7 NIV).’”

I want that to be the song in my heart—that all my fulfillment and satisfaction is found in God alone.  Yes, I find fulfillment in my husband and my daughter, but these are gifts from the Father, and without Him I would grow bored and frustrated with them too (just Google “divorce rates” or “foster children” to see what I mean).  One of my favorite Bible teachers, Mike Bickle, often says that you can do the will of God in hospital bed or a prison cell—it is not dependent on your circumstances or surroundings.  Take a lesson from the desert fathers and John the Baptist.  You can be in the middle of the Sahara with only a water supply and a Bible and never be bored.  The only thing that will fully fascinate and settle the trouble in your soul is God Himself.

My advice?  Use this gift instead of trying to bury it in earthly experiences.  Throw yourself into the first commandment:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. (Luke 10:27 NIV)

That alone can take a lifetime to do, and as you fulfill the first commandment, you’ll naturally fulfill the second—loving your neighbor as yourself.  Purpose yourself to know that which cannot be known by any natural means—Eternity—and if you manage that and still want to move then pack your bags.  Just make sure you’re not doing it to relieve yourself of the discomfort that God has so lovingly bestowed upon you so that you may come closer to Him.

Most people who know me know that I am vehemently pro-life.  I find that term to be interesting: “pro-life.”  It’s interesting because many people who claim to be “pro-life” are, in fact, only “anti-abortion”, which isn’t a bad thing to be.  We can certainly connect with God’s heart by being “anti-abortion.”  Abortion is wrong because murder is wrong, but why is murder wrong?  It’s wrong because God is pro-life.  God loves life and creates it with joy and gladness in his heart. We need to love life that way.

I am definitely against abortion, but I believe we are missing the mark when we reduce the pro-life stance to simply being against abortion.  We have a pro-life culture when we celebrate life, when married couples aren’t afraid of getting pregnant, when we open our homes and hearts to the orphan and the widow in distress.  We love life when we go out of our way to help single mothers and fathers.  Let the reader understand that I am pointing the finger at myself here.

I understand I’m walking on thin ice, but bear with me.   I’m not against all forms of birth control (though I am against popular forms of birth control that prevent implantation, thus causing spontaneous abortions).  I believe that God gave us dominion and that includes the issue of family planning.  It’s not wrong to take measures to keep from getting pregnant, but it is wrong to take those measures out of fear that a baby will mess up your life.  I find that many young couples are simply afraid of having a baby because the world’s wisdom says it’s better to accumulate wealth before having children so the addition of children will not upset one’s lifestyle.  Remember, the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world.   Let it be known that God loves babies and we need to love them more than we love a comfortable life! Again, having a comfortable life is not wrong, but prioritizing comfort-ability and convenience over new life is wrong.  A better attitude might be to say, “I don’t think I’m ready for a baby (or another baby) right now, but God knows best and whatever He decides is fine with me.”  The Bible makes it clear that children are a blessing from the Lord.  How many of us refuse God’s blessing because we have our own plan for our lives and it doesn’t involve children until a certain point?

Let’s join together to start a culture that is truly pro-life.  It begins with us.

Now this is simply a theory.  I cannot quote chapter and verse to back me up, but indulge me for a moment, if you will.  I think everything about having a child is specifically designed to give us deeper insight into the knowledge of God (as are most human experiences).  God created us in His image and He gives us children in our own image.  Think about that for a moment.  God could have designed the human race in any way imaginable.  In fact, He could have designed us in countless ways unimaginable to the human mind, but He chose to design us so that genes are passed down from parent to child; thus giving us children in our image just as He created for Himself children in His image.

He did not only that; He also designed us so that babies are born out of love.  He could have made us asexual creatures who procreate automically, but He didn’t.  He wanted children to be conceived in love just as humanity was conceived from the love of God.  Once the child is conceived, He allows the mother to carry her child inside her own body, just as He carries the plan of us in His heart before we are ever conceived or born (see Psalm 139:13-16 and Jeremiah 1:5).

It is no mere coincidence that babies come out of the womb completely helpless.  It is part of God’s brilliant plan.  We are completely helpless.  Without Him we can do nothing.  Left on our own, we would die slow, painful deaths, but we don’t have to because He made a way.  And He not only made a way to save us, He gives us beautiful gifts, such as parenthood, which are designed to bring us even closer to Him.  As I have been a mother to this little girl for a mere two months, I have grown a deeper appreciation for the humility and servanthood of God than I have ever known.  I’m so very thankful for this journey!

If I knew that one of my children would grow up to hate me and vehemently oppose me would I still conceive that child? Honestly? Probably not. However, unlike me, God knew that the majority of humankind–His beautiful, glorious dream that He brought to life–would hate Him, yet he still created them. Why? He not only created mankind, but became a man and died for all those who hate Him. Why would He do such a thing? Is the love of the few worth the hatred of the many? Does the glory of His brilliant plan of salvation outweigh the pain caused by those who turn against their maker? It wouldn’t be worth it to me, but I’m not God and He’s not asking me to do what He did. I’m one of the depraved that He rescued and is continually transforming into the likeness of Himself. I don’t know why, but I am certainly thankful.