The Joy of Living in Two Worlds

They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

–Hebrews 11:16

As Christians, we have been tasked with a difficult assignment: living in two places at once. There is tension in trying to live in this world while being citizens of the next world. But that tension is overshadowed by a corresponding joy–a joy that comes from knowing that this world is not our home, and we’re just passing through on the way to a better place.

One of the most joyous occasions in my life was the night I was called as pastor of my first church. I had enjoyed serving as a youth minister in Dallas, but I always knew God had a different calling for me. So on a Sunday night in June 1985, I preached a message at the First Baptist Church in Eastland, Texas. Then my wife, Amy, and I were taken to another room while the church members deliberated and voted on whether to call me as their new pastor. After the vote, the church members–our new congregants–lined up to celebrate with us, and we shook hands, hugged, and cried with them. It was a tremendous evening.

When Amy and I got back to our motel room that night, we could hardly sleep because we were so excited about our new assignment! But the next morning, we loaded up the car and drove back to Dallas. Even though we had a new assignment, I still had six weeks of work to finish at my church there.

Those six weeks were some of the strangest in all my experience. In one way, I could work with absolutely no stress. My future was secure. My membership was already someplace else. Yet during those six weeks, I also had a renewed desire for excellence in my ministry. There was something about being called as a pastor that gave me a new seriousness about my ministry. That renewed zeal carried me not only through those final six weeks in Dallas but also into my next ministry in Eastland.

God wants all of us to experience the liberation that comes from knowing that this world is not our home and that our future is secure. That knowledge ought to free us from the stresses of this life. But God also wants us to have the motivation to spend our years on earth developing a Christ-like attitude–because what we develop here, we carry with us into eternity. That’s the joy of living in two worlds.

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Today’s devotion is adapted from “Heaven Can’t Wait” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2012.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.