#6. Homesick

“Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

I feel more and more homesick every day.  There are plenty of great things about this life, but there is also so much hurt, pain, and brokenness, and I know this is not how it’s meant to be.  I know God can and will use all of this for His glory, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to endure daily.  Everywhere I look, people are suffering, children are dying, relationships are ending, friends are sick, people are lonely and hurting. 

I know that God’s plan is perfect and so is His timing, but as I go through my own (relatively minor) difficulties, there are so many times I wish I could see God’s plan for me, to know what is ahead and how all the pieces of my life fit together.
               
But I am beginning to realize that, actually, God already has told me the end of my story:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.”  -Revelation 21:1-3

He makes all things new, and He is making me new, too:

Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man. 

-1 Corinthians 15:49

Someday I will be in heaven with Jesus, worshiping Him for all eternity and finally living as He created me to live.

The pain and suffering here on earth is a reminder that I’m not home yet.  Pain itself is not a good thing; it’s a symptom of our broken world.  And every day, it seems to get worse and worse.

The natural response when you see something (or someone) that is broken is to want to fix it, to want to say or do something that will make it better.  But we can’t do it on our own.  The more I see the brokenness in the world, the more I long for my true home in heaven, where everything will finally be as it should be.  I also long more for others to know that same peace and assurance. 

There is only One who can truly fix what is broken.  So why doesn’t He just do it now? 

“We can ignore even pleasure.  But pain insists upon being attended to.  God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains:  it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  -C.S Lewis

Everyone who experiences pain knows this truth:  This is not how it’s supposed to be!  This is not how we are supposed to live!  But not everyone knows that there is another option, a better way to live.

Despite the fact that there is legitimate evil in the world, God is able to redeem anything for His glory, and He will do it, because His reputation is at stake (Isaiah 48:11).  He can use pain and suffering to bring people to Himself, and He often uses us to do it. 

Pain seems to affect me so much more now than it used to.  It could be because I’m getting older and myself and those I love are being more directly affected, but I think it’s more than that.  I’ve been praying that God would break my heart for the things that break His and that He would help me to see people as He does, and I believe He is answering that prayer. 

The more God breaks my heart for others’ pain and suffering, the more I should desire to share His promise of hope and peace with them.  He has made me an ambassador of His message of reconciliation—what an awesome privilege and responsibility!

So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”  -2 Corinthians 5:20

As much as our world seems to be growing increasingly divided over moral issues, people still need and want hope.  Without our connection to our Creator, we all have a void inside, waiting to be filled.  It may even be through pain that God reveals it to us.  And He has entrusted me (and all believers) with His message of hope.  If I’m doing my job of truly demonstrating Christ’s love in everything I do and say, people should want to know Him and, in turn, might come to long for their true home as well.

“The mold in which a key is made would be a strange thing, if you had never seen a key:  and the key itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock.  Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions.

Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it—made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.”

― C.S. Lewis