living in the temporary...

All during medical school friends, colleagues, strangers would ask us about where we would go for Residency...are we going home? I would always respond "thats the prayer" and never answer "yes". I would explain that we would love to be in Texas, but that more importantly we wanted to be where God wanted us. Well...skip a few years and you know how that prayer was answered...or not yet answered.

Now that we are in Residency in PA friends, family, and colleagues {I don't much run into strangers working from home} ask if we are going home to Texas for Practice. I now answer yes before I can even think about it...not because I know or because I am giving God the answer, but because it is truly the desire of my heart...now when God changes our desires our answer will be different. I always follow up with... I am praying one day God will bring us home!

Well...I have started reading the Purpose Driven Life {again because I have yet to finish it} and the chapter today talked about the temporary nature of this life and how it shouldn't feel like home, but just passing through. That is exactly that way I have always described Cleveland..."it just feels temporary". I shopped knowing it was our temporary home...I always considered the thought of moving it and was it too bulky before buying. {Now...our free finds are a different story...I can't turn down free finds/gifts.} We took care our apartment with extra care knowing it wasn't ours, but we were borrowing it.

Is that not exactly what God's talking about with living in this world? Live in it and enjoy it, but not too much because you aren't staying here. It is just a stop on the journey to Heaven. Don't waste your money on an abundance of possessions because you can't take them with you. Make great friends and make sure they come along with you on the rest of your journey and spend eternity with you. Live the moments of celebration because they will sweeten your memories.

I don't know that I would have ever understood "living in the temporary" like I do now since living away from home. I feel that God really taught us that feeling and is encouraging us to live life this way and also to have a greater understanding of home and how we should yearn for heaven.

We can't wait to live at home again...is that now how we should feel about Heaven? We know that its not time to be there yet...is that not also true of living in the pearly gates just yet? We know that we must live this part of the journey and learn the pearls He's teaching us until we get there...is that not true of our lives?

I don't know where He'll take us next...I know where we want to go...where we truly yearn to be, but I know that as I live life here temporarily that I need to learn what He is teaching me.