When COVID-19 arrived and white collar America started working from home, I continued following twenty-year habits built around work. I continued to eat a processed convenience breakfast. I still planned all meals around being out of the house for 11 hours. Over the course of months, I slowly noticed things I was doing that didn't make sense anymore and made changes, one at a time, to take advantage of working from home. Turns out I can prepare a healthier breakfast when I don't have to commute. I can also put something in the crockpot at noon or in the oven at 4 and go back to work. I can step away from my computer for a lunch break and exercise or put in a load of laundry. I can sleep later. Or I can get up and read all those books I always wanted to read. It was all about learning to see things differently.
And that was an easy one. When I was a teenager, I lost a lot of weight — about 45 pounds. But I had years of practice thinking of myself as fat. Even as I bought smaller clothes, I still thought I was overweight, and that colored how I interacted with other people (read, girls) for many more years.
Another example: When I first got married, I continued to think of "my money" and "my time" even though someone else had a claim on both. It took a conscious decision to think differently — though I, ahem, had help remembering.
Have you realized you're not what you were? You're not a sinner anymore; don't see yourself as a slave to sin but a saint (Rom 6:18). You're not your own anymore; you've been bought with a price (1Cor 6:20).
And you don't belong here anymore; Christians are citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20). That makes us "aliens and strangers" (1Pet 2:11 NASB) in and to this world. We can be citizens of heaven and still act like citizens of earth, but we should learn to think and live like we really do belong to another Kingdom — to make a mindset change.
Think about how you would live if you moved temporarily to another country. How would your life look compared to the average native's? You would participate in that culture, but only to the extent you felt comfortable as a sojourner. You might engage in some of their holiday celebrations, but you wouldn't let them interfere with yours. You might have an interest in local politics, but it would be as someone who will be there only for a short time.
Now what if you were part of your country's embassy to that nation? You're still a foreigner, still a sojourner, but you have a job to do representing your home to these people. We are Christ's ambassadors (2Cor 5:20) living in exile for a time in this world as we wait for his kingdom to come.
Let's remember who and what we are:
You are a child of the King, here for a little while to represent your Father to a world with ways that are diametrically opposed to the ways of his kingdom. One day you will go to his court, and you will want to be fit for life in his kingdom. And you will want him to approve of the way you represented him during your stay.
So you won't want to let this world taint you with its ways. You'd want to keep your Father's mission in mind when you interact with the natives. And word from home would be more important than the goings on of the locals.
So look at your life and ask yourself if an "alien and stranger", a heavenly ambassador to this land would do things that way. Find one thing and change it. Then find something else. Repeat until you're home in glory.
Image via Pixabay
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