A Volatile Business: When Circumstances Put Your Home At The Bottom Of Your Priority List

"Drops of Jupiter" gets stuck in my head anytime I hear it. I know, I know, the song came out seven YEARS ago. Well, that's about the time I started having kids and precisely the time my knowledge of top hits was replaced with "Itsy Bitsy Spider". 

For whatever reason, "Drops of Jupiter" was in my head just now; particularly the line about the Milky Way and lights being faded. I guess I got there thinking about the faded cushions on my couch. What used to be an attractive red couch has faded into a quasi-red couch teetering on pink. As is typical for me, I was singing my own lyrics because I never know the words to songs. The housewife satire might sound something like this:

My heart burning and cushions fading 
So tell me, did you fall for the picket fence, 
One without a permanent prince, 
And then you missed Me 
While you were looking for yourself out there. 

Train, the artist who sings the real lyrics to "Drops of Jupiter", wants us to ask ourselves:

But tell me, did you sail across the sun? 
Did you make it to the Milky Way 
To see that the lights all faded  
And heaven is overrated?

I haven't made it to the Milky Way yet, but I do know that heaven is not overrated. Despite the opinions of some (or even most) the Lord has placed His Spirit in me and therefore I know that heaven awaits me. That is where Christ sits at the right hand of the throne of God and He is bigger and better than any thing my eye can see. 

Here on earth, there is something that burns in my heart almost constantly, a tension if you will. I love decorating and rearranging people's homes, but deep down I know that what the inside of our homes looks like doesn't really matter. 

The value that I place on having a pretty home is volatile. In other words, there are circumstances that can change it. Difficult life circumstances come our way--a family member becomes ill, a child turns in a wayward direction, marital strife escalates, financial pressures mount--any number of things can catapult having a nice home to the bottom of our priority lists. 

If I were living as a persecuted Christian in a life-threatening part of the world, I would most certainly not care about my faded couch cushions and cluttered home office. 

So, what does this mean?  Am I to walk around with the guilt of the world pressing down on me because I live in America and own three couches? I think not.  

But I am to "remember those in chains", pray for them, and make my life about more than couch cushions and organization. I am to live a life of love and invest in relationships--those within my four walls and those without. Because life is more than picking out the perfect paint color, finding my favorite item on sale, or digging out from a catastrophic pile of clutter. 

Of course we know this in our minds, but it is often difficult to actually live it out. For all our head knowledge, our heart strings still tug at us strongly for the things we see--because we see them! 

Therein lies the irony. The things that our eyes easily see are the very things that often hold the least value. When we try to seek the unseen reality of things eternal, naysayers entice us to believe that heaven is a pipe dream. But truth cries out. 

Seen things do not endure, they are passing away. 

It is not heaven that is overrated, but life on earth that is overrated. Our pretty homes and sleek cars, our surreal vacations and designer wardrobes--these are the things that are passing away.

It is the unseen things that last for eternity. Love, joy, peace, patience, forgiveness, intimacy with God, eternal life. These are treasures that will not fade like my couch cushions because they are kept forever in heaven.  

I love to bring fresh inspiration, functionality, and style to people's homes, but know this:  It really doesn't matter where you live or what your house looks like--it matters Whose you are and where your residence will be for eternity. I hope we'll be citizens of heaven together. 

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."  2 Corinthians 4:16-18

"...but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  Matthew 6:20-21

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions...I go to prepare a place for you...[and] I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, you may be also.  And where I go you know, and the way you know...I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."  -Jesus, John 14:1-6

If you would like to learn more about the persecuted church you can visit Voice of the Martyrs at www.persecution.com 

To learn more about how to help victims of child trafficking at the hands of ISIS visit https://preemptivelove.nationbuilder.com/lovefirst