sojourner

“It's better to fight for something in life than to die for nothing.” ~General George S. Patton

You and I are merely passing through this world. We are all just sojourners traveling from place to place, year after year, passing by life after life, person after person as we go about our journey, and as we go about living out our lives. Make your time here count! Make your life matter.

What we do for our careers may not impact a single soul, but how we live absolutely can change everything for the eternal lives of others. One particular example of this stands out in my mind. This person changed the trajectory of my life, but I won’t likely have a chance to tell them until I see them in heaven.

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. (Paraphrased from history.com)

When thinking of Memorial weekend, I cannot help but think about how grateful I am for the men and women who have fought and died for the freedoms we have and how their time on earth was often cut short, but their lives, perhaps while not long, were not without purpose. They fought for the very freedoms one would assume they believed in, but also for the freedoms they also wanted for everyone, even those of us they would likely never know. They were each passing through this life, each with a purpose, and a commission to fulfill their assigned mission.

While I don’t know the majority of the men and women or their families who sacrificed for the freedoms I get to experience today, those very people passing through this world made a positive impact on my life, the lives of those I love, and the lives of all Americans. While it would be really something to know each of their names, I don’t have to know each one by name to recognize, remember, and be grateful for each of them, their sacrifice, and the sacrifices of their families.

Do you know this world is not our home? Do you know that we are actually living, “between two gardens,” as Lysa Terkeurst, author of, It’s Not Supposed to be This Way, describes our lives? Terkeurst explains that we are living between The Garden of Eden, and the Heavenly Eden. “At the beginning of the Bible there is the earthly Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:7-10). At the end of the Bible is its counterpart, the heavenly Eden (Revelation 22:1-5).” ~Ron Graham, Simply Bible

The Garden of Eden was God’s earthly, initial home for His children. It was perfect, without pain or sorrow or death, until it was ruined through the enemy, Satan, and the decisions of Adam and Eve. Due to their fall, we all became sojourners, destined to wander this earth, never feeling at home. The future garden is another perfect garden, but this time it is to be a heavenly Eden. This is the garden Christians will experience upon Jesus’ return.

We all are painfully aware that we currently live in an imperfect world. We are mere sojourners here, traveling between the original perfect garden and the new heavenly garden we anticipate will one day be established.

Between time, or gardens, we are called to be the light in this dark world. We are called to remember this world is not our home, and as we anticipate our heavenly home, we are to share the gospel with all we know, also telling them, that this place where we roam about, where we are all just travelers passing through, this is not where our souls will spend eternity.

We are to share the good news that one day, there will be another garden where all is perfect, and no one will cry, or hurt, or die.

This world is not what it was meant to be
All this pain, all this suffering
There's a better place waiting for me
In Heaven

Every tear will be wiped away
Every sorrow and sin erased
We'll dance on seas of amazing grace
In Heaven
Chris Tomlin - Home

Throughout my journey, particularly the past 37 years, I can look back and recognize/identify so many people who were put in my path for such a short, but very specific moment in time, and just how critical their role was in my life at that time. It’s even crazier to think that I can even remember the ways in which God used people to speak into my life, some whose names I have no recollection of.

After my first husband and I split in March 2001, I decided I wanted to move back to Indiana to be close to family, but we had a house in Kansas to sell first. My ex ended up taking a job and moved there ahead of us in July of that year, leaving the boys and I in Kansas to sell the house. This added stress, on top of an already stressful and bad situation. It was overwhelming! I was overwhelmed, and I really needed counseling!!

When our world turned upside down in January 2001, I switched churches and started attending a church closer to our home, The Church of the Resurrection. It was a larger church, and it felt good to be somewhere big where no one knew us and all of our dirty laundry, as opposed to our little church. I remember calling the office of our new church, desperate for someone to talk to. I needed someone to walk me through everything I was feeling and experiencing, and I needed it to be from a Christ centered perspective.

I was so angry and needed guidance and accountability. The human side of me didn’t even want to handle things the way I knew a Godly woman should. The lines between righteous indignation, and self-righteousness were completely blurred. I wanted to get even. I wanted to hurt my ex the way he hurt us.

Fortunately, this church stepped right up to the challenge.

The first counselor I met from The Church of the Resurrection was one of the male pastors. I met with him multiple times over 2001. Sadly, and embarrassingly, I cannot for the life of me think of his name today.

I wasn’t even a member of their congregation, but he offered to meet with me as often as I needed him, and he offered to connect me with other women in the church who could also be of support to me. This particular pastor spoke life and truth over me. The power of his presence in my life in that one year was critical.

His words, while not appreciated or even understood until several years after moving from Kansas, were the very words God used to set me on a path to overcome Satan’s strongholds, and the bondage of lies I had been bound up in for years.

I met with him two, sometimes three times each week, always falling apart, and always full of anger. This particular time I’m referring to was no different. I remember falling apart in his office, again, my broken heart hemorrhaging all over. The days and weeks of keeping up the walls and playing it tough in front of the boys, just crumbling all around me. I remember purging my heart and soul out to this minister, but the words he spoke to me in that moment would change my life, forever.

He listened to my story and then he looked me in the eyes and said, “Melinda, you did not make your husband betray you, nor did you make him lie, you didn’t deserve the things that happened, but you were part of a dysfunctional marriage. If you do not understand what you “owned” in that you are bound to repeat this cycle because as miserable as it is, “it” is your normal. We are creatures of habit. It’s easier to go back to what we know than do the difficult work of understanding and course correcting. You are biblically free and clear to leave this marriage and start dating again, but I strongly discourage it.”

That statement, spoken by a minster whose name I cannot remember, who crossed my path at a very critical but specific moment in time changed my life forever!

After moving to Indiana, I was again blessed by a church I wasn’t a part of at the time, Traders Point Christian Church, whose leadership stepped up and connected me to with another good counselor. I continued in counseling for many years after, learning more about myself and my past that helped me understand more and more about who I was in that marriage, and why I was that person. I learned how to break bad habits and set boundaries.

That one statement, by a minster whose name I cannot remember, at a church I was just passing through, was the game changer for me.

I love the Hebrew translation of sojourner. “Sojourner” is the frequent translation of the Hebrew term gēr (Hebrew gēr [גר]; plural gērīm [גרים]). This Hebrew term and its translation convey the basic idea that a person (or group) is residing, either temporarily or permanently, in a community and place that is not primarily their own and is dependent on the “good-will” of that community for their continued existence.” (Sojourner, John R. Spencer)

I am a sojourner.

I reside here, between the two gardens, temporarily. I have been a part of multiple communities, most of which were primarily not my own, my boys and I were transients, and I was often dependent upon the “good-will” of that community for support and love. There are many people I can think of through my ten years in Ohio, my five years in Kansas, and my 14 years back in Indiana who supported me/us in a variety of ways, for temporary periods of time, but all having a valuable and important role in our journey.

I can also think of lives I played a part in for a specific moment in time, some so closely woven together and intense you believe you will be connected forever, but alas, it’s time for one of you to move on to the next place, and the pattern starts all over again, threads being woven together that create the tapestries of our lives.

We all are sojourners.

Like the men and women who left their homes and what was familiar to go where they had to go and do what they had to do to fight so we can be free, as Christian sojourners, living between the two gardens, we too are called to leave the safe and familiar to share the gospel and be the light of Christ, knowing that our journey in this garden is not our final destination, but keeping our eye on the prize, the heavenly Eden, and travel down any road at any cost.

Leavin' the safe and familiar
With their hearts set on a heavenly prize
There were some who laid down their nets
And some who lay down their lives

Not sure where they were going
But they did not have to know
Cause they knew who had called them
And they said we will go

Down any road
At any cost
Wherever you lead we will follow
Because we know
That you've called us to take up our cross
Down any road
At any cost (Point of Grace-Any Road, Any Cost)

time

surrender