Heart of a Sojourner

February 10, 2019 / 20 Comments

Launching a blog is such an intimidating undertaking! I think the first entry should make sense to the reader as to why it exists. I can tell you honestly that I have wrestled with that question for over 2 years. What do I have to say that would be deserving of your time and attention? What would be the focus and who would be the target audience? Why should I join the ranks of the countless bloggers in the world? Aren’t there enough voices out there?!  What difference does one more voice make? These questions have swirled in my head and kept me in a perpetual state of “potential blogger paralysis,” which I am convinced should be a legitimate medical diagnosis!

Some time ago, a personal friend and mentor listened to me express those very thoughts, and her reply gently compelled me to act on the persistent sense of calling to do this. She reminded me that my particular story is one that only I can tell, and that it may well be that the way I tell it will resonate with someone in a way that the same truth communicated in the context of a different story from a different perspective might not. If that is the case, what matters to me isn’t how many are impacted by what I have to say, but rather that my voice may bring hope to even one person.

My circumstances may or may not be anything like yours, but that really isn’t the point of what I have to share on any given day. The real story is about my traveling Companion. It’s about the freedom, courage, strength, joy and peace I have because of Him. It’s about having hope in the midst of the hard stuff of life.  And it’s about figuring out how to live with heaven in mind.  These are the parts of my story that I want to share with you.

As a Christ follower, I want to have the heart of a sojourner.  A sojourner is always mindful of the fact that wherever she is, it is not her ultimate destination. It’s not permanent. It’s not home.

Living this out is easier said than done. I know my ultimate destination is to be with my Lord forever. Sometimes, having this perspective helps me to surrender an attitude of entitlement to the blessings that I am able to enjoy only by the grace of God.  In times of trial, it frees me from the fear that grips my heart with the lie that says the pain I am experiencing will never end.

In another sense, I am sojourner in this moment I’m living, not only in this circumstance, but also in this place of spiritual understanding, character and perspective. My husband and I will sometimes express a longing for the years we might have had together had we made different choices earlier in our lives. We back away from those longings quickly when we remind one another that it is impossible to separate who we are today from where we have traveled. Every step of our lives has shaped us and prepared us to be the man and woman who love one another so deeply today. We had to go where we went to get where we are.

In his commentary on the book of Exodus, Murray Andrew Pura, says,

“To leave one place is to head toward someplace else. So the way of Leaving is just as much the way of Arriving. The Israelites leave slavery and come into freedom. Yet at no time in Exodus does anyone find a permanent place to live. They are sojourners. …So in a way it is a spirituality of journeying. In another way it is an invitation to the children of Israel to put their roots not into land or houses, but into God himself. In all their wanderings they have the opportunity of finding their identity and their purpose in God alone.” (The Life with God Bible, NRSV 1989)

I think we each are given this same invitation to a “spirituality of journeying”. I am so thankful for His companionship, and for yours, my friends.

I’d like to share some thoughts as we travel along the way. In all likelihood, I’ll be writing them with a large mug of coffee close at hand, and I recommend that you read them with the same, if the circumstances of your day afford you the pleasure.

Blessings, Rachel

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