Out of This World

Have you ever felt like you just didn't belong?  I think it happens to everyone, at least once.  For some of us, it happens in school; you're not in the "in" crowd.  For some, it happens as we get older, and find that we're not fitting in at our job, or with our in-laws, or with our neighbors.  Maybe we feel we don't fit in at our church.  Maybe we don't even seem to fit in our own families.

We were created to be with other people.  When God made Adam, he said it was not good that the man was alone, so he made a woman, Eve, to be his companion.  Adam said of Eve that she was "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh."  (Genesis 2:7-23).  How much closer can you get than that?  Adam and Eve also had a very close relationship with God.  God walked in the garden, and spoke directly to them.  When Satan convinced Eve to disobey God, and Eve included Adam in her sin, mankind was separated from God.

We are all still looking for that perfect relationship.  We know in our hearts that there is something more.  That we SHOULD belong.  The many religions of this world have been founded on this concept.  There are clubs and organizations for every conceivable cause.  People are quick to associate themselves with their country, family, or school.  People form cliques so that they can feel included.

Hebrews chapter 11 gives a list of people who lived by faith in God.  Verse 13 says "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."  So this is the problem.  We really don't belong.  This world is fallen, and out of the will of God.  People have been trying for all of time to get back to the paradise that was lost.   

The good news is, there is a way to get there.  In John 14:6, Jesus says "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."  Because he came, and because he died, he created a bridge for us to get to Heaven.  The secret is to find it.  All of the religions, cliques, clubs, and organizations in the world are only distractions from the path.  All of our causes and obsessions only act as barriers.  We carry our masses of possessions, those we have and those we wish we had, as weights that slow us down, or keep us from moving altogether.  We need to clear our minds, hearts, and lives of all of the junk, and focus on the cross, our bridge to paradise.