Going Native

We profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could. I don't wonder apostolic miracles have died. Apostolic living certainly has." — Amy Carmichael

I read this quote somewhere last week, and I just haven't been able to get it off my mind. I feel like God has kept it close to me because it is something I must give attention to in my own life. I have often marveled how so many "Christians" will profess that they try to live their lives as close to the example of Christ as they can and yet their day to day lives are after the same fashion that the world dictates is "normal". Striving for the newest car, latest fashion, coolest toy and the most profitable job is the name of the game, they play right along side everyone else. These "christians" may have once been earnestly seeking their heavenly home, but at some point they went native, giving up their journey home and settling down to grow roots in this world.
But when you stop and take a look at the lifestyle that Christ lived along with His apostles and eventually the early church, our lives are vastly different!
They lived with nothing except the clothes on their back and the Word on their lips. Spreading the message was all that they cared about advancing. Though they might never have left the town of their birth and worked the same trade their entire life, they lived as strangers and they counted years on this earth as simply a mission trip, here only to praise their Father and brings others the news. And what was their reward? What was their driving motivations? Their deeper understanding of God's Truth and the promise of heaven. Did they require more? Did they live out each day begrudging their lack of earthly goods and worldly favor? Their testimonies shout a resounding NO.

I think often we confuse the idea of "pilgrim and Stranger" with Tourist. Tourist are strangers who are visiting to see the sites, experience the local culture and reap every benefit that the land has to offer. We are not called to be tourist, but Pilgrims. Pilgrims are strangers on a journey to somewhere else and that destination is their goal. They are not taking a "road trip" either. They do what they must so that they can continue on and get closer and closer to their own country, bringing others home with them to their Promise Land. I am not in any way trying to say that we must live as homeless people (although Christ did in fact) and we must beg bread and give no thought to care our families. You can live this "pilgrim" life in whatever situation you are in. It is not solely a physical living situation. It is a spiritual one as well. In the same way that you should not spend your years striving to fill your home with the most expensive things, Deck yourself with rich jewels and finest apparel, you must also abstain from focusing all your time on YOUR dreams, YOUR opinions and YOUR earthly comfort and wisdom. Is your Life about having as smooth or (fleshly) enjoyable a "journey" as you might, or is it about advancing the kingdom, encouraging and edifying others, walking as closely to Christ as possible until you reach your own country?

For myself, I have to make a conscience effort to examine and reexamine my daily driving goals. It is so easy for me, as a young and single adult girl to place my hopes for the future and the acquiring of the means to gain it before the Journey I am on. As most of you know, my fondest future plans are of my own homestead. My Cabin I want to build, my farm I want to tend and my dream style of life I want to live can so quickly become my focus. Yes, a person of the world might look at my plans and say that the simple and minimalistic lifestyle I dream of seems basic and very unworldly. But it would still be as wrong as any other if it, and not my journey home, is my focus. If I would instead live my life focusing on Him, spreading HIs word and looking forward to Heaven, rather than worrying over my earthly desires (no matter how innocent they might be), then I leave that open for God to bless me with the Life HE wants for me. And I believe that the greatest part of this is that it would no longer matter if I attained all the things I once hoped for myself, because if He is alive and working within me, I will only feel fulfilled by His perfect Will!

This of course is very easy to say. The tests that come, when you dare to examine and correct your path will be tough and on going. But I know that By faith, I can endure because My Father made me this promise. I am always encouraged when I read the list of the Faithful ones of the bible in Hebrews!
There is one verse, which I have meditated on that I want to be true of me.
Hebrews 11:13 "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of [them], and embraced [them], and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
Now when you read this, it is actually talking about Abraham, Sarah and the Children of Israel that did not reach the promise land in their lives. But I think this should be a mirror of our lives, We will not see Heaven here on earth, but we know the promise. And when we are persuaded of it, embrace it and see it afar off, we truly will live as strangers and pilgrims.

I would earnestly encourage you to examine your focus, and whether you are "settled here" or truly a stranger, earnestly seeking your arrival home.