Searching for home; yearning to belong

In this life, as Christians, we necessarily experience a degree of tension because we are at the same time part of this world and yet not part of it. We are called and commanded in so many ways to be intimately bound up with this life, invested and engaged in our communities, laboring for the good of the earth and the people in the earth - to live with the "this-worldliness" that Bonhoeffer wrote of. We're supposed to honor, submit to, and pray for those in authority over us in a worldly sense (1 Peter 2:13,17; Romans 13:1-7); to work to provide for ourselves and our families (2 Thess. 3:10-12, Eph. 4:28, 1 Tim. 5:8); to serve the poor and needy, and to live with generosity and hospitality towards others (1 Tim. 5:10, Mat. 25:37-40). And to do all of that well, our minds have to be in the world, wrapped up in the affairs of the world and of other people, to truly be aware of the needs we can meet, and our strength needs to be used in the midst of the world to put forth enough effort to actually make a difference in the lives of other people.

And yet at the same time we are reminded that we are not of this world, though we are still in it. In a crucial way we have been pulled out and set apart, and given a new home. Peter, in his first letter, prefaces his exhortation about how to live in the world by reminding us that we are "sojourners and pilgrims" in this world. The Apostle Paul agonizes over the choice between living on and continuing his work, or dying and going to be with Christ, "which is far better." There is a sense that even though we are in this world and ought to be living wholeheartedly in this world addressing its needs and problems with the talents God has given us, we still do not fully belong here. Some of the most beautiful hymns capture this feeling of unbelonging with their music as much as with their lyrics, crying out the longing of the heart to live in the courts of the Lord instead of on this cursed and sin-filled earth, yearning with the sons of Korah in Psalm 84 for a place that we can truly call home.

How can we reconcile these two threads of being that run through our lives as Christians? Tension can be a good thing, but it can also be paralyzing or bewildering, and if the tension can be brought to harmony - if the two themes can run the course of faith together instead of pulling in opposition - that would be an even better thing. One way I have thought of involves considering the issue differently: instead of feeling like we do not belong in the world, and thus tending to ignore it or wish to be rid of it, we could perhaps feel like the world does not yet belong with us. We have been redeemed and are being restored; it has not yet reached that point. But instead of leaving it in its sin, we can choose to take part in its restoration. It does not yet belong in the glorious halls of holiness, but by the grace of God it will, and it is our privilege to work and hope for its redemption. Creation was indeed "subjected to futility", but we have this hope and assurance that it "also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." (Romans 8:21). Having been called out to God in advance, so to speak, by the work of Christ in a place where He truly did not "belong," we can now labor in this world in His likeness and in His same work of reconciliation and redemption, to bring all things to Him who makes all things new. And someday, when the creation is brought forth into our liberty through our adoption by God, we will finally have a genuine and everlasting home, a place where we can truly belong.