No Selling-out to Security...

Yesterday I moved into a beautiful, spacious apartment on a hill with big windows, high-ceilings, white walls, and a cat called Amos. I'm house-sitting  for 3 weeks for an American/Finnish couple I met through friends while they're on holiday in Finland. I am LOVING this place, even if it does feel huge after my tiny, one-room flat I share with a roommate, and empty with just the cat and I.

Yesterday on the tram in between jobs the Lord and I were talking through some things on my heart (I seem to do a lot of talking with God on my commutes here and there from day to day!), mostly about how unsettled my life is, and the toll that takes... About my next step, the way people have responded to my sharing with them what He's doing in that area, and the way I feel about it, the things I desire and don't, the lonesomeness inherent in this stage of life.

And the line He spoke so clearly to my heart and which has held me firmly since whenever the anxieties bubble up was, "I didn't make My people to be sell-outs to Security." I find the reminder of that truth so powerful right now. Security is not a bad thing in and of itself! I do hope to have some semblance more of it than I do now in His time. But not as my goal, and not at the risk of trusting Him through the less 'secure' things He might call me to. But how potent is the temptation to do just that-- to sell out to so-called 'security' in this life-- when He has made us to be completely counter-cultural, to live as if life truly is but a breath in light of eternity, living as if nothing else matters except to know Him and make Him known! He never said to only reach out as long as we are safe and secure in doing so. No, the ones who have refused to be sell-outs to earthly security, like Paul, have instead poured out their lives like drink offerings (Phil 2:17). And He's always kept His promise to the ones who leave much in order to follow Him, that they will have as much restored to them times a hundred (along with persecutions, so you shouldn't be surprised or daunted by opposition, silly Leah...) and in the rapidly approaching 'age to come', eternal life (Mark 10:29-30). I realize anew that I may struggle every day on this earth with the fight between my flesh and His Spirit in me, one longing so much to curl up safe in a 'security' I could build with my own hands, and the other knowing that His Security is the only true security. It could mean death or disease (I can testify to that one...) or loss or homelessness (and that one...) or heartbreak (yep) or hurt (yep, yep) or as many difficult things as you can imagine on this earth. But our time here is literally the blink of an eye in comparison with eternity, where none of those things can touch us. Eternity is the only real security. And that's the truth He's called us to live reflecting to the world.

You've heard the phrase, "So heavenly minded that she's of no earthly good" ? I'm afraid that's just not the way it works. Col. 3:2 tells us to, "Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth." A life lived this biblical way is what William Penn called, "True godliness" which "does not turn turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it." Faith must be followed up with action, or it's dead.

So... I will luxuriate in this place He's given me to make home in for the next 3 weeks and let it remind me of the Security I rest in, even when I have no other rest in the world's eye. And I will continually pray for a renewed mind to see the world the way He does and not the way I naturally do. So that I might truly live as if there is no fear in Love...

Thank You, Love. Teach me how to stand so securely in You that I won't give in to the temptation to sell-out to so-called security out of fear when this life is so short, Your love is SO big, and Your ways so much higher...