I Heard It Said Once

I heard it said once that when life gets rough and our health starts to fail and life just puts us through the ringer that perhaps those trials are part of the Holy Spirit prying our hands off this world, thus making us long for Heaven all that much more.

I suppose that if I look at 1 Peter where it talks about our sufferings making us worthy of the Kingdom, then I can see some possible biblical support for the statement. I bet I could find other Scriptures to support the idea too. I don't tend to look for Scriptures to support my ideas though. I usually try to make my ideas line up with Scripture.

At any rate, I gotta say, I like that statement. I do think that at times it is easy for us to get so caught up in this world and in the trials that we face that we forget where HOME is. And sometimes a trial or a journey in the wilderness is just what we need to remind us of our citizenship.

The past two years (and counting) have seemed/seem like a never-ending walk in some lonely desert, complete with scorpions, rattlesnakes and vultures flying overhead. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever make it to the Land of Milk and Honey. Sometimes I just seem to wander aimlessly, searching for some glimmer of hope. And sometimes I feel like just sitting down and letting the vultures peck out my eyeballs.

Right now we are wandering aimlessly. Our hands are tied concerning just about every one of the situations we are facing. We can only sit and wait and hope.

We are tired though. We need fresh water and a cool place to rest. We need to know that there aren't really any giants waiting to defeat us in the Land of Milk and Honey. We know that provisions will be made for us, that's not our concern. Our concern isn't necessarily even getting to the Land of Milk and Honey *right now.* We just need to know where to step next. We trust there will be a spring of fresh water there -- just show us that step.

In the meantime... this desert has me longing for HOME like nobody's business. Won't it be nice when there is no more wilderness or vultures or scorpions? To be honest, I don't even care about streets of gold or diamonds in the walls. It'll be nice just to be with DAD always. Know what I mean?