Strangers In A Strange Land

I believe we are meant to feel out of place here. I believe we are meant to feel off kilter and like we don’t quite belong no matter where we might be on earth, because this is a temporary respite on our way to eternity. We are passing through on our way home, and if we’ve grown comfortable here, if we’ve come to the point of feeling as though we belong, then I think something is amiss.

I didn’t grow up with what one might call permanence to begin with, but each morning I wake up I seem to recognize this world and relate to it less and less. I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t belong here. I have to keep reminding myself that I am a traveler, a stranger in a strange land, passing through, trying to make my way to the other side and doing my utmost to point the way to the One toward which we ought all to endeavor to draw near.

We are all renters, and no one’s an owner. Nobody in their right mind invests their money in a property they are renting, because they know at any moment the owner can come and evict them, kick them out into the street and bar them from ever setting foot again.

For being renters we sure do invest a lot in someone else’s property. For being renters we sure do get attached to someone else’s possessions and invest our time and resources in something that has no permanence for us.

We are pilgrims, and wanderers. We are men of women of different nationalities, different ethnicities, different levels of education, and even different habits, but united in Christ, and made citizens of the heavenly kingdom through Him and in Him.

As Peter encourages those who were dispersed throughout, I wish to likewise encourage you today, and remind you that you are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. You are begotten to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away. This inheritance is reserved in heaven for you, kept safe and secure by none other than He who created all that is seen and unseen.

It is of no consequence that we feel like strangers here for a time. It is of no consequence that we might be called upon to suffer for the sake of Christ, or even lay down our lives for Him, because our incorruptible and undefiled inheritance, an inheritance that does not fade away, is waiting for us.

I know many of you are feeling as out of place as I am, and although I wish I can tell you different, these feelings will only continue to grow as we stand firm in the light of truth and the world descends deeper into the darkness of sin.

In between watching my wife feed our baby girl, and changing diapers I’ve been jotting down some notes from the book of 1 Peter, and time permitting and Lord willing I will begin sharing them with you, as I believe it is a very timely epistle for those of us who feel displaced, or out of place.

Just thought I’d share these thoughts. Hope they make sense as I’m running on fumes. I guess babies get fussy after they turn two weeks old. Oh yeah, we made it through the first two weeks. Fourteen days have come and gone, and baby still has all her fingers and toes, and smiles contentedly more than she frowns.

It is said that if you can get past the first fourteen days, it’s all a breeze and a blur from there. If this is a lie, and you know that it is, please leave me to my blissful ignorance as it is a fine straw I am grasping at.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.