A home for the spiritually homeless.

Over these last few weeks, I haven't been doing all that great. Work has been hard, we've been sick, midterms were stressful, and I feel like in many ways I'm still figuring out where I fit in here. I've been discontent, whiny, and "on edge." I've verbalized to Matt that "I feel like I'm just in survival mode."

Yesterday I finished a book for my counseling class by Paul Tripp entitled Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands. Whether or not you have an interest in counseling, I think this book is worth reading if you're a human and you live on planet earth. Anyway, there was a section at the end of the book that just hit me square between the eyes. Do you ever read something that just seems to latch onto your heart, and you can't stop thinking about it? I had one of those moments. Tripp was discussing how so many Christians settle for so little in their walk with the Lord.

He writes, "Many people in the midst of a struggle live as if they were spiritually homeless. They live [a] survivalist, distracted, fearful, escapist, and 'for the moment' existence. They do not think about growth and change or pursue the good things that are their inheritance as children of God. They just try to get through the day. They live as if they were poor, when, in fact, they are amazingly rich."

Umm...fearful, survivalist party of one?

Thankfully, he then goes on to say, "When we live with a poverty identity, the problem is not that we ask too much of the Father, but that we settle for too little. We settle for hammering together some kind of spiritual survival with the hope that things will be better in eternity. But the Bible never presents life on earth as a meaningless time of waiting for the good stuff that comes later. The biblical method of waiting is not simply about what you will get at the end of your wait, but about who you will become as you wait. God has promised you real, abundant life in the here and now. We have a Father. We have a home. We are rich. We struggle a great deal, but we can expect much as well."

Isn't that so encouraging? We have a home in God.

*sigh*

Welcome home weary soul, welcome home.