i was reading chapter 6 of "The Purpose-Driven Life" devotional, and today's chapter seemed to resonate a response to the october 11th entry about homesickness...here are a couple of passages that spoke out to me while i was reading:

"A fish would never be happy living on land, because it was made for water. An eagle could never feel satisfied if it wasn't allowed to fly. You will never feel completely satisfied on earth, because you were made for more."

""Your time on earth is not the complete story of your life. You must wait until heaven for the rest of the chapters. It takes faith to life on earth as a foreigner."

"When life gets tough, when you're overwhelmed with doubt, or when you wonder if living for christ is worth the effort, remember that you are not home yet. At death, you won't leave home -- you'll go home."

those three passages brought me so much comfort in recognizing that there's a reason why i don't feel at home wherever i go, not only because of the circumstances of my own family, but because i am not created to be a citizen of the world, but of something greater. although i try to remind myself daily that i'm not meant for this world, sometimes by reading other people's opinions and works, those daily reminders become all the more real.
Rick Warren, the author of this devotional, mentioned in this same passage a story about a retiring missionary and the president of the states returning home on the same boat. while the predient was welcomed home with a huge crowd, a band, red carpet and the works, the missionary wasn't even noticed in his homecoming...but the God reminds him, "my child, you're not home yet". in a similar tangent, i realize that as Christians, we are here on this earth as missionaries whether we realize it or not. the purpose of a missionary to leave the homeland to win others back to Christ in a foreign country or territory. but if we're all created for heaven, or better yet, if our home is in heaven, then that must mean our mission here is to win back non-believers in this foreign territory that we call earth.
now don't get me wrong. i'm not writing this as a call for everyone to drop what you're doing and heading off to a third-world country to preach the Gospel. but i feel like the purpose in writing this is to create an awareness of the perspective we should take as Christians when it comes to living our lives daily while we're on campus, at work, or wherever. are we being good ambassadors for Christ? (ambassadorship is another thing that Warren touched on). or have we gotten to comfortable with the things of this world to realize that we have been set apart from it?
jonathan

P.S. my favorite part of this song is when he asks the congregation:
"How many of you wanna see Him one day??
Open up your mouth and say HALLELUJAH!!"
this song is so powerful, i love it....