Temporary

For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. – Hebrews 13:14

I remember when I was younger that my dad would often play .38 Special albums on his turntable. One of my favorite songs was “Hold on Loosely.” Like every other song I used to listen to, I had no idea what the lyrics were actually talking about. Now, if I ever hear this song, it has kind of a spiritual application for me.

I don’t do change well, yet a lot has changed for me in the past few years. I have only held 3 jobs my entire life. I hated giving up being a golf cart attendant for seven years. But, when I graduated college, the next logical step was to become the math teacher that I had studied to become. I went on to teach at the same school I attended as a kid. I spent 30 years of my life there either as a student, or as a teacher.

Fast forward to the present. I’m teaching for my second year at an alternative school, as well as pastoring Lifeline Community Church. I love both jobs, though I do find it quite difficult to do them both well. If I ever start thinking past the current day or week, I get overwhelmed really quickly. God has really taught me to live one day at a time.

I say all that to say this: Things change . . . a lot. I can see why God put verses like Hebrews 13:14 in the Bible. I have to make a conscious effort to let go of Earthly things. I want to hold on to them and never let go. I wanted so badly to hold on to my golf cart job and never have to grow up and actually be responsible. I wanted to stay at the same school where I walked through the doors for 30 years. I want my kids to stay little. I want my wife and I to not enter the second half of our lives, where we have less days ahead of us than we’ve had behind us. There are constant reminders that this world is not my permanent home.

One day, you and I will leave this entire world behind. It is not our home. No matter what a person believes, things will be different one day. There are really only three possibilities: We will cease to exist, we will recycle and exist as something else, or we will go on to live in an eternal home, which could be very, very good, or very, very bad. I pray that every person reading this believes the latter and has or will put their hope and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who traded His life for any and all who receive His mercy and grace.

With much effort, I choose to hold on very loosely to the things of this world. I love being a teacher, but I’m less than 10 years from retiring. I love being a preacher, but I won’t always have the strength to stand in a pulpit. I love having my kids at home, but they won’t always be here. I love my wife like crazy, but one day death will do us part. I could try with everything that I am to grab hold of and protect what I think is my way of life, but what an exhausting, futile effort.

Instead, I will simply enjoy it all, one day at a time, looking forward to the next day, the next adventure, or the next phase of life knowing, and I mean really knowing, that God has promised to never leave me, and never forsake me.

The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord: and he delights in his way – Psalm 37:23.

Later

Adam