August 19

Day 158: Sojourners and Foreigners

After a week's break to be with family in California (thank you for indulging me!) I find myself now back in rain country. Leaving temps in the 100's and returning home to the land summer forgot is a transition indeed.

Each time I find myself in California I feel myself more and more the foreigner. While I am still most comfortable in shorts and flip-flops, and do retain the ability to use "Dude" correctly in a sentence, I feel less and less at home in the land of my birth.

All that aside, Deb and I did not go for the sake of our home state. We went to be with family, our children and their children. While we enjoyed time with extended (and extended-extended) family for sure, it was the time spent with immediate family members that was so very precious.

I was able to meet and hold my newest grandson, and kiss his tiny toes. I sat on a plane and played lego's with our now 6 year old grandson. I drove my son-in-law to the ER after he dislocated his shoulder on our makeshift, redneck slip-and-slide. We stayed up late each night around a fire pit and talked about anything and everything.

I marveled at how good our children are as parents. I watched my wife flourish in the role of superlative grandmother. I washed a lot of dishes, and drove a lot of miles in our rented Suburban.

The reality hit me. It's not the place; it's the people we love that make a place special. It's not the location; it's the shared history and shared events, shared language and shared relationships. A place is only a venue for the good stuff to happen.

As a Christian, I am increasingly aware that I am a foreigner; what the Bible calls a "sojourner." Psalm 119:19 says, "I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me."

The Church is like an embassy; a place for the foreigners to be and to maintain context. Shared history, shared events, shared language and shared relationships. The embassy can feel like (at least a temporary) home, but it is temporary.

Christians are foreigners. We live in a foreign and sometimes hostile land. But, it's not forever. Because we are also sojourners - meaning, we will end up in our permanent and most-fitting home.

For now, the embassy is our home away from home. Inside the embassy is the one place where foreigners are not foreigners. But the embassy never fails to remind us that we are sojourners, traveling and waiting for our forever home.

The time and place where there will no longer be need of embassies. When our citizenship, and our home will be in the only and all-dominant Kingdom. When we will no longer sojourn; where we will no longer be foreigners.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau