Away from Home
God on Monday
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“So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord — for we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:6-7
Reflection
The places where we carry out our day-to-day lives will never feel quite like home for Christians. It is an inevitable consequence of living in the “already but not yet” of the Kingdom of God. But this should never make us despondent about seeking the spheres in which we live and work to become more like our heavenly home. We need to be ‘always confident’, as the Apostle Paul exhorts the Corinthians in the verses above, ‘even though…we are away from the Lord’.
This feeling of not being at home is generally most keenly felt in our non-church lives. This is where the sacred-secular divide can seem all-pervasive. There is an undeniable difference between worshipping in church and sitting at a desk crunching numbers, mopping a dirty hallway, frothing a cappuccino for a hurried customer, folding laundry, or instructing a class of schoolchildren. But living by faith is not reserved for particular places; we are called to live by faith wherever we are, aiming to please the Lord (v. 9) in everything we do, however secular it may appear.
The gift of new life through Christ empowers us to fulfil this vocation. It is a gift that transforms us and enables us to become agents of transformation in the world around us. While the Kingdom has not yet come in all its fullness, it is open and accessible to all those we encounter, wherever we encounter them.
In our day-to-day lives, however much we may feel like strangers in a foreign land, we can live lives that are grounded in God’s love, fully confident in all circumstances that the home we have found in God is forever safe and secure.
Response
What are the places you feel the least “at home?”
What steps you can take to draw closer to the Lord in these spaces?
Ask the Lord to reveal to you how you might live in more missional ways in these places.
Prayer
Gracious and loving God, you lead us through places in which our faith makes us feel like aliens. Create in us a confidence in you that animates every area of our lives. Draw us near to you, so that your Spirit can work in us and through us. May our awareness of the life to come embolden us to demonstrate your love to all people, in all places. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
This Week's Author
Kimberly Deckel, Priest at the Church of the Cross, Austin (USA); Director of the Faith, Work, Mercy, and Justice Initiative, City to City North America.
God on Monday is produced in partnership with the Church of England. The reflections are based on the scriptural readings designated for the next Sunday in the Church's lectionary. You can sign up here to receive each God on Monday instalment.
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