When the excitement of New Year’s Day has passed and we’ve settled into the idea of 2012 and the writing of it on the page and the checkbook, do you go back to the routine of every day, relieved to have Christmas behind and Valentines’ ahead? Some years that is me; just let me get back to normal and get on with it.
This year, I started thinking that what I would like to do with myself would be to do something, one thing, memorable that no one in my family will forget, that they will talk about for years to come…. that they could be proud of in the telling of it.
And then, I got a reality check in my head just about the time I started daydreaming about what the something would be… and I discovered that is what it is, a daydream.
Anyone else have these same thoughts?
The reality is this: The thing I really want my family and my friends to remember is this: I am faithful. Faithful to them, to God, to who I am, faithful to the standard by which I live.
Hebrews 11: 1 gives us a clear definition of faith:
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Other defining statements relate that faith is the substance or the foundation of what we believe. To carry this on a little further down the road apiece, what is it exactly that I hope for and what am I certain of? Skip on down to verse 13 and 14-
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on the earth. People who say such things show they are looking for a country of their own.
I suppose to make things simple this is what I’m sure of and what I hope for:
1. I do not belong here
2. My home is somewhere else
3. I will be going there
4. I will get what was promised to me when I believed.
My childhood experiences served me well in concreting the “I do not belong here” statement to my heart. I was given to my grandmother to raise when I was 6 months old. My parents split and went their separate ways. As a child, my grandmother kept trying to get my father to take me back and raise me…. After several failed attempts, a stepmother, and a little bit of maturation on my part, not to mention the 14 different schools I attended between kinder and graduation; I got the message- I do not belong here.
I first realized that my home was somewhere else when I began to understand that Jesus is the son of God, he came to die for me, and when he went back to Heaven he was preparing a place for me- some translations call those places “mansions”. I grasped onto the mansion part in my younger days. If there was anything I really wanted it was a great big house. I even had a 27-room mansion laid out in my head- a place for everything and everything in its place! Ha- actually I have come to feel that the 27 rooms are in my head! And they are all full! Junk piles up, you know!
I will go to that place that is prepared for me someday, and I will receive what was promised. I think that it will be so much greater and grander than what I imagined in my head when I was younger and I don’t think I will have to worry about the size or the paint color.
If you are like me and you feel that you don’t belong where you are- take heart, it may just be a sign to you that you are on the right path! Painful as it may be when we are experiencing those feelings of not belonging- take it as a signal to look ahead and see from a distance the things He has promised to you!
Post-script update: I did manage to survive the moratorium on daytime TV before Christmas, with one exception- an early morning peek at the weather. I am pleased to tell you that, now, most days I don’t have the TV on and am busy with other things… but I’m glad I had the experience and was obedient to the request of the Holy Spirit to not watch it for that period of time. Not sure there was a specific “lesson” in there except that of obedience- a reminder that what He asks of us is never impossible with Him – even the small things.
Happy New Year!