Election day is tomorrow. I don’t really want to touch politics more than I have through mere references in other blog posts. This morning, I woke up not knowing what I was going to write about today, but I prayed and asked God to give me a message to deliver while I was listening to music, and the song that came up shortly thereafter immediately gave me something worth writing to Christians about.
I know I’ve touched on this before, but last time I meant it to teach a lesson. This time, I’m here to pass on some hope to you with a reminder that this is not where you belong. This life and the things that infect it are merely a temporary dwelling leading up to a fabulous eternal life.
Whenever I feel down thanks to the struggles of this life, the first thing I jump to is good, healthy, Christian music because it speaks to me, and one of the songs that hits me harder than most when I’m feeling depressed and anxious about where things in my life are going is “Where I Belong” by Building 429.
Sometimes it feels like I'm watching from the outside
Sometimes it feels like I'm breathing, but am I alive?
I will keep searching for answers that aren't here to find
I sometimes dwell too deeply on things that I can’t change, questions I can’t answer, experiences I go through yet feel no control over. I know that right now a lot of others are doing the same things. It’s easy to look at the state of the nation we live in—no matter where you are—and despair over the past, wonder about the future, and worry for the current situation, which seems so bleak.
In the United States, specifically, many Christian ideals, biblical ideals, and their implementation in our society, are being decided over and over again as elections come every four years, and as we so desperately cling to what we know is right by the Bible, it becomes so easy to feel like we’re losing the presence of God in our nation. We have questions for God about why he would allow leaders in charge who condone the ruthless murder of unborn children, about why he would allow His people to be persecuted when He could protect them.
So when the walls come falling down on me
And when I'm lost in the current of a raging sea
I have this blessed assurance holding me
And sometimes, we feel so hopeless, like the world our God set up is falling in on itself, preparing to crush us. We’re outnumbered and in over our heads. We’re not capable of doing what must be done on our own. But here’s the hope.
All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong
When it feels like it’s too much; when you think you have no hold, no influence, on the situation, remember these things. Here—this Earth—is not the end. There is more to come; there is better to come.
We sometimes try to grasp the world and hold on for dear life as we work to finagle and wrangle it around to God’s way of thinking. We try to take the whole world in our arms at one time and wrestle it into submission. But we don’t have to.
Sometimes—all the time—we need to step back and stop trying to take the world. We need to let God take it, the only one who can hold it all in a single hand. The third line of the chorus in this song is so simple, yet so profound. “Take this world and give me Jesus.” When you feel overwhelmed, keep that in mind, too. When you chose to follow Jesus and love the Lord your God, you made a trade.
We think of salvation as a gift, and it truly is, but it’s a trade just as much. You get to trade the weight of the world for the help of Jesus. You get to say to God, “take this burden from me,” and be carried by Jesus to the place you belong, because you don’t belong here. I don’t belong here. You and I belong with the Father.
So, no matter what happens tomorrow, no matter who becomes president or senator or representative or governor, remember that your time here is temporary. The lease on your home here is short; soon you won’t have to pay that rent anymore. When all’s said and done, you’ll have a wonderful, permanent home waiting for you. And there, you will be at home forevermore.