scripture and prayer reflection
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Lyrics
The fool built his house on a sinkhole
The wise man built on stone
You and I live out on the highway
'Cause you know we won’t be here long
From the edge of the San Fernando Valley
To the hills of the Ozark Plateau
You and I will reside on the visitors' side
Everywhere we go
Hallelujah, hallelujah
This world is not my home
It's just a place I'm passing through
‘Til I leave these weary bones
These bones are aching for salvation
A destination beyond the blue
I know my soul will leave these bones
When our traveling days are through
Hallelujah, hallelujah
This world is not my home
It's just a place I'm passing through
‘Til I leave these weary bones
The beauty of the Earth that speaks of Heaven
And the pain that speaks of Hell
This old body of mine I will leave behind
When I say my last farewell
Hallelujah, hallelujah
This world is not my home
It's just a place I'm passing through
‘Til I leave these weary bones
Hallelujah, hallelujah
This world is not my home
It's just a place I'm passing through
‘Til I leave these weary bones
‘Til I leave these weary bones
‘Til I leave these weary bones, God Lord
‘Til I leave these weary bones
Philippians 3:12-21
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Luke 6:47-49
47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Reflection
I never felt particularly patriotic until the year that I lived overseas. Though in my growing up years it had simply been an excuse to have a cookout and light sparklers, that year when the 4th of July rolled around, I experienced a surprisingly strong surge of sentimental appreciation for and pride in my home country. I missed it, even as I enjoyed living in my host country.
Citizenship was a big deal in the Roman Empire. At one point, government officials discovered they’d made a mistake in beating Paul publicly without a trial (Acts 16). They hadn’t realized he was a citizen, and citizens had special rights and privileges that non-citizens didn’t. Just because you lived there didn’t automatically make you a citizen, and they had mistakenly assumed that as a Jewish man, he didn’t have citizenship.
When they tried to quietly sweep the whole event under the rug by telling him he could go, Paul used the rights of his citizenship to demand an apology for the improper treatment, giving his release a much different tone than his arrest. But Paul is the same one to write in his letter to the church in Philippi about how our true homeland is Heaven. Far and away beyond all other earthly ties, rights, privileges, duties, claims, and obligations, our true identity is that of being a citizen in the Kingdom of God. That is our home.
You may or may not be patriotic yourself, but whether you are or aren’t, this truth remains foundational to our faith. We are not yet home. Our home and our hope lies elsewhere, and we are like travelers passing through this place on our way there. This doesn’t mean we withdraw from life or that our time here is in any way meaningless, but if we begin to live as though this world is our home, we lose sight of our real home — of the home that God created us for.
The world around us is constantly vying for influence in our lives. The implications of our true citizenship affect not only the priority and place we give our national identity in our lives, but everything — particularly the key things that drive us. What is it that we’re chasing in and with our lives? Do these things lead us toward or away from the things of value in the Kingdom? What we value, long for, and pursue will shape our hearts, for better or worse. I think at least part of the reason that Paul chose to use the imagery of citizenship is to help us reorient by connecting us to our true home so that it could begin to take root in our hearts now — so that as we spend time looking forward to Heaven, the way that we live now will be shaped by the fuller reality that is waiting for us there. Remembering our true identity draws us to live it out in our lives by fulfilling Christ’s commands, like the wise man in His parable.
Take some time to reflect on your own life. What comes to mind when you think of being a citizen of Heaven? What significance does that have for your life today? What things are you chasing that are driving you toward what God made you to be like? What things are you chasing that are driving you away from that? Spend some time confessing those things to God. What would change in your life if you were to live more fully as one whose true citizenship and identity is in Heaven? Talk with God about what comes up.