The world has changed.
It’s done that before. I remember it felt like the whole world changed after 9/11. Suddenly the world was no longer the friendly place I imagined it to be as a child.
And now the world has changed again. Lies are carrying so much weight that the lay person can’t tell them from the truth anymore. Expected, right? On spiritual matters. Satan has always gone to war against the truth. But this has gone beyond spiritual matters to simple facts, and I’m astounded. Fear has replaced faith, demanding our rights has become more important than loving our neighbors, and kindness seems almost antiquated. Pastors are beginning to expect that sooner rather than later, they will have to choose between the truth and their freedom. Again, expected. But in other countries. Not here. Other centuries. Not now.
My first thought: It just doesn’t feel like home anymore.
My second thought: It’s not supposed to.
The Apostle Paul says our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). Abraham dwelt in tents even after reaching the promised land because there was a bigger promise, a better city, and he was not going to stake down his life for a temporary home (Hebrews 11:8-10, 14-16). And believers throughout history have joyfully accepted the strangling of their rights and the seizure of their property, even imprisonment, knowing that they had something better waiting for them (Hebrews 10:32-34).
If heaven were my home, would I treat earth differently? If heaven were my nationality, would I treat my foreign neighbors differently? My heavenly countrymen differently? If heaven were my home, might I be less sad to leave a by-gone version of earth behind?
So I will put all my eggs in heaven’s basket, not in life “getting back to normal,” not in who sits in the White House, not in what convictions my friends hold or what truth or lie might be currently carrying the day. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).