Belonging

I heard Building 429's song, "Where I Belong" on the radio while taking my kids to school yesterday.  My daughter and I were singing along with it.  If you haven't heard it, the chorus goes something like this:

All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong

I look around at a world in rebellion to God and realize why my heart leaps when I hear this song.  In daily life, it is tempting to resign myself to the fact that I am a citizen of a world where riots break out over stupid amateurish films, or God's design for marriage is ridiculed and challenged, or children in utero are now "choices," or children are forced into sex slavery, or materialism and worldliness are celebrated and championed.

I think the biggest battle that the Christian must fight in today's world is this:  simple worldiness.  We are constantly in danger of planting both feet in this world, aligning our primary citizenship here in this world instead of in heaven.  The earliest Christians never saw themselves as citizens of this world- they saw themselves as "sojourners"- travelers- through this world on a temporary basis.  They saw their primary citizenship in heaven.

Simple love for the shallowness of what this world offers will destroy the faith of millions of Christians.  I see it every day.  Simple love for worldly comforts will keep thousands at home instead of answering the call to foreign missions.  Simple love for worldly things will keep millions of Christians from finding ultimate satisfaction in God.  Simple love for the conventions of this world will move people onto the broad road that Jesus says leads to destruction. 

We are in danger of believing that we belong in this world.

We are in danger of believing that we should get along with what this world says.

We are in danger of sacrificing our citizenship in heaven so that we can be better citizens of this world.

The words of the Building 429 song echo through my head as I write this- "All I know is I'm not home yet/this is not where I belong."  Yet, does that mean that I just throw this world to the wolves, wash my hands of the whole situation, and write this world off as lost?  I can't.  Neither can you.  Love does not allow us to do this.  As long as God loves the people of this world, so must we. 

It's just that I can never allow myself to believe that my first allegiance is to this world and what it offers.  I have to constantly battle with the part of me that wants to believe that I need to fit in or be comfortable in this world, that if this world does not approve of what I am doing or saying that somehow I am in the wrong.  I have to constantly battle with a world that wants to make Jesus into its own image- the kind, loving, easy-pushover guy who was a butler and therapist to everyone (but who never once challenged or convicted or stated clear right from wrong, or who said that most people would walk the broad road leading to destruction, but only few would find the way to everlasting life).  I have to constantly be on my guard for what my heart desires, because every time I find myself desiring what this world offers, it's just another leash this world puts around my neck to stifle my freedom in Christ.

I have to be able to say, honestly, that there is nothing in this world that I need.  I only need Jesus.