It's Just A...

There's a message by Francis Chan I really liked where he had one of his boys with him in his arms. His purpose in that was to show us that's what it should feel like to be in God's arms. So safe, so secure, so dependent. Not just Father. Not just Dad. But Daddy, holding us safe and close.

Getting that kind of thought in my head makes it more difficult to think that sometimes it's him who sends people out into hostile territory where Christians are terribly persecuted, tortured, and killed for the goods new of Jesus Christ. Ask those who have faced such situations and came out unscathed -- so many, perhaps all, will tell you how willing they were to die for the sake of the gospel, and how they never felt closer to God than in those moments.

But that's just it, isn't it? We're not bodies with a soul, but rather we're souls that happen to have a body. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:1-2, "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling."

So what's our response when our Daddy sends us out into the fray, and what should it be?

Think of how kids might response when you tell them to do something that's a little sketchy for them. "But by shirt will get messed up." "But my hands will get dirty." "But I'll miss my toy." "But it's scary." And so on...

What do we tell them in those cases? "It's just a shirt. It's just a little dirt. It's just a toy. It's just a little dark. It's just a, it's just a, it's just a..."

Well doesn't God say the same thing to us?

"It's just a chunk of money that won't buy happiness anyway. It's just a silly distraction that will not edify. It's just a body that will rot in the end. It's just a life on earth that's not everlasting. It's just a, it's just a, it's just a..."

There's a whole lot more than the things of this world and living for the few years we have on the earth. Pursue that.