The journey home

Read 2 Timothy 4:6-8

6-8 As for me, I feel that the last drops of my life are being poured out for God. The glorious fight that God gave me I have fought. The course that I was set I have finished, and I have kept the faith. The future for me holds the crown of righteousness which God, the true judge, will give to those who have loved what they have seen of him. (JBP)

The old saying goes that some Christians are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly use. While this may well be true, the opposite may also be true. Some Christians are so wrapped up in this present world that they have little concept of the new heavens and new earth. Their horizons are limited to this life and so they immerse themselves in it.

We are to be engaged with our present world, to be speaking signposts to Jesus, to advance his rule in his world. Any idea that our faith is merely about getting to heaven when we die is a gross distortion. While we embrace the certainty of life after death, we also embrace the reality of life before death.

A balance is to be observed. Like Paul, we are engaged in many challenging circumstances. We fight the good fight, we run the race. We do all we can to make our world a better place because we are in it and Jesus is in us. And yet, like Paul, we are conscious of another destiny, another life, another chapter in the never ending story.

C.S. Lewis puts it well when he says, “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

Blessings
David Reay