40 Days of Faith: Day 12

Hebrews 11:13b – …and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

In August of 1993, I moved into what we lovingly referred to as the Penthouse on Chrestman Hall at Mississippi College. It was my junior year in college, and I had a great roommate, Shane Scott. He is now Dr. Shane Scott, and he has gone on to practice medicine in his hometown, while also being faithful to incorporate medical missions into his calendar each year.

I enjoyed my year at MC, and I moved there for one reason only. I moved to Mississippi College to get closer to Julee King. Julee and I met two years prior at her front door when I was invited to a Bible Study that was hosted at her house that summer. There were sparks, but it took us about a year to get on the same page. In the summer of 1992, we were falling madly in love and dreading the day that she would drive her pastel adobe Ford Thunderbird east on 1-10, to 1-12, to then turn north on Interstate 55, to state highway 6 to the University of Mississippi. That year, we dated from a far, seeing each other about once every 12 weeks.

This was before cell phones, before facetime, before text messaging, and at a time when both of our parents made us pay for our long-distance bills. Let’s just say that we wrote a lot of love letters to one another and kept the mail carriers busy.

The day I learned I could continue my studies for the ministry at a Baptist school in Mississippi was the day I set a move in motion. Though we would be three hours apart, her in Oxford, and me in the Jackson area, I knew that we could see each other on the weekends. She had two aunts who lived in Clinton, Mississippi where the college was, and her roommate’s boyfriend’s family let me stay at their place in Oxford anytime I wanted to.

As I look back on that time, I have come to the realization that I never really fit in at Mississippi College. It was and still is a great school. But I only clicked with a few people because I knew I was short term. You see, Julee would graduate at the end of that year, and we would both move back to Houston. Further, Clinton, Mississippi and Houston, Texas are very different cultures, and it wasn’t the culture I was used to. I imagine that if I had gone there from my first semester in college it would have been different, but transferring in as a junior wasn’t ideal.

But guess what? It was always a temporary place for me. I moved to Mississippi for one reason and one reason only – to get closer to Julee King. I was madly in love with her, and I wanted to marry her. Now, having just celebrated our 30th anniversary, I am more in love with her than I have ever been. I was willing to go sojourn and be an alien in a place I didn’t belong because of who I loved and wanted to be with. And I think that’s what the writer of Hebrews is telling us about these saints in the Hall of Faith. They lived different lives because of who they loved and wanted to spend time with.

That’s how we need to view our time on earth. We need to make the most of the time we have been given, and we need to steward well where we are and what we have. But we are here temporarily, and this world is not our home.

As a result, we are not motivated by the culture and climate of this world. No, we are motivated by our love relationship with Jesus and the time we have here is so that we might grow closer to Jesus.

Listen to how Warren Wiersbe describes Abraham and Sarah. He states:
Here we have the great “father of the believing” who is one of the Old Testament’s, greatest examples of faith. Abraham believed God when he did not know where (vv. 8–10), when he did not know how (vv. 11–12), when he did not know when (vv. 13–16), and when he did not know why (vv. 17–19). It was faith in God’s Word that made him leave his home, live as a pilgrim, and follow wherever God led. Faith gave Abraham and Sarah power to have a child when they were “as good as dead.” Abraham and his pilgrim descendants did not turn back, as the Hebrew leaders were tempted to do, but kept their eyes on God and pressed on to victory (vv. 13–16; 10:38–39).[1]

I love that Wiersbe makes it so simple. “Abraham believed God...it was faith in God’s word that made him leave his home, live as a pilgrim, and follow wherever God led.”

Just as I once lived in Mississippi knowing it was only a temporary stop on the way to Julee, Abraham lived as a stranger in this world, looking toward his true home with God. That perspective shaped everything about how he lived—he could endure hardship, resist compromise, and keep moving forward because his eyes were set on eternity. The same is true for us. This world is not our final home, and that truth frees us to walk by faith, guided not by culture but by love for Christ. Today, ask yourself: Am I living as if this world is my home, or am I living as a pilgrim who longs to be with Jesus? Take one step today that declares your true citizenship is in heaven.

Prayer:
Lord, thank You that this world is not my final home and that You have prepared a better city for me. Forgive me for the times I’ve settled into comfort here and lost sight of eternity. Teach me to walk as a stranger and exile, with my eyes fixed on You and my heart rooted in Your Word. Help me to live in a way that shows my love for You above all else, so that my life points others toward the home You are preparing. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

  [1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1992). Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the New Testament (p. 707). Victor Books.