Pastor's Perspective - This Isn't It

This isn’t it.

Last night as I was dozing-off into my post-Conan slumber, I was reminded of the truth in that statement – ‘This isn’t it’. Somehow its resonation re-centered me and brought me no small infusion of peace.

Like all of you, sometimes my attention and focus gets diverted. The seen and the passing gets too much of me, rather than the unseen and eternal. I look at personal events, like the one I wrote about two blog postings ago, and wonder ‘why’. Similarly, I swim daily in the tank of church leadership, during a challenging time unprecedented in two thousand years of evangelicalism. Next, as a current events junkie, I read the headlines daily. My head has wagged repeatedly recently at the image of a young girl’s dying stare in a violent Tehran street, celebrities transcending justice, governors embarrassing their families and constituents, rogue nuclear dictators, misprioritized misspending by Teflon politicians, crashing and colliding planes, trains & automobiles, television commercials that make me run for the remote, and now, it’s apparently just too late for a certain Jon and a certain Kate! (What about the ‘Eight’ part?)

After serving as a missionary for forty years in Africa, Henry C. Morrison became sick and had to return to America. As his ocean liner docked in New York Harbor there was a great crowd gathered to welcome home another passenger on that same boat. Morrison watched as President Teddy Roosevelt received a grand welcome home party after his African safari. Resentment seized Henry Morrison and he turned to God in anger, "I have come back home after a lifetime of service to Christ and the church and there is no one, not even one person here to welcome me home." Then a still small voice came to Morrison and said, "You're not home yet."

Friends, this isn’t it. You’re not home yet.

The aging Apostle Peter identified the recipients of his first amazing epistle “aliens and strangers in the world.” As modern-day Christ followers, we can and must embrace those same titles and truths, and set our hearts and minds on eternal horizons – untouched by worldly vandalism.

Are you hanging on too tightly?
Have you put too much of your wellbeing in a president and economy?
Is this old world, with all it’s many upside down players and pieces, stealing your joy and robbing your hope?

Let me remind you friends - this isn’t it.

Better is coming, and it’ll all be worth it!