WAIT…IS THAT REALLY TRUE?
The title of my article is the title of a very old gospel song. It has been sung for ages. It is probably one of the best known of all the gospel songs. When you check for it on the Internet, you discover that hundreds of people have included it in their albums over the years. The first line of the song says: “This world is not my home I’m just passing through.” I want to challenge that thought. I do not believe that God put us here to be “just passing through.” I do not believe that he created this earth and put us here for us just to “pass” through; that this is just a transfer station. I believe that we have a distinct mission while we are alive on this planet. I believe that God meant for us to view this planet as our home. However long we live here, this is the home he created for us. If we take only the view that we are temporarily here, we miss the real reason that God created this place for us. We are here to represent Jesus, to help others in His name, to bring others to God, and to learn to love each other.
When Jesus was talking to his disciples in John 14, he implied that this world is our home. He stated that our place in heaven was not yet ready. He said, “Do not let your years be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. “(Vs. 1-3, NIV) Going to prepare a place for them, meant that it was not the plan for them to view their mission on this earth as a “passing” matter.
There are many people in the mental health field and in the self-help book industry that tell us that in order to have a mentally healthy life and to be emotionally well that we need to focus on the HERE AND NOW. Focusing on the here and now was a major emphasis of Jesus in His “Sermon on the Mount.” In Matthew 6, he is saying to his followers that they need to be focused on their spiritual mission, not on everyday things. He cites the birds as living in the present tense; he cites the lilies of the field as living in the present tense. Here is his concluding statement about this matter: “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34). This whole passage is a mile away from “I’m just passing through.”
Are we not to think of Heaven, then? Of course, we are! Jesus gave us a lot of insight into it. He compared it to a place with many rooms. He described it as a place of joy and rest, and a place without pain. Wonderful place! Are we not to think of it at all? We can think of it as often as we choose and look forward to going there. But that does not mean that we are to look at this world as a foreign place that we don’t belong. We do belong here! We have a mission here! God created this place for us to belong…not just to pass through.
So then, what is our mission? If this is our home what are we to be doing? It is our job, our occupation, and our destiny to tell others of God. Jesus left us clear instructions in his final words to the Disciples in Matthew 28:19-20: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations (or all peoples), baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NLT)
What does this mean for you and me? I think is simple: We do not view this world as “not our home.” God made it for you and me. He gave us a job to do while we live here at home. We can look forward to a place that is better than this; but for now, “this world is my home and I’m not just passing through.” WE ARE HERE AND WE MUST MAKE THE MOST OF IT!