I always tell my children they should work where their dreams and gifts are. Most of your waking time, you’re at work. If your work is a struggle, life becomes a struggle. But it’s a celebration when you do the work you were predestined for on earth.

I am privileged to live my dream. I can use my gifts to make a difference in other people’s lives. It energises me a great deal. The danger is that you can then work too much. You almost get addicted to it. I’m working on it …

Part of my dream is that my wife and I can travel through our country to record sermons for our YouTube channel, Kruispad247TV. We usually try to choose the location where we’re recording the message so that it fits the content of the message. This usually helps one to understand and remember the text even better, especially for people who struggle to concentrate, like me.

At the beginning of 2023, Renata and I toured Israel for three weeks and recorded 14 sermons. It’s a wonderful country and it was such a great privilege to be able to see where Jesus walked. Most Jews are a bit stiff and the bus was not the time and place for making jokes.

Things are different in Israel. Driving on the other side of the road is not easy and you have to concentrate all the time to stay on the right side of the road. Especially with the circles it can sometimes be difficult.

The food they eat is not quite my taste. And their meat is unreasonably expensive. You can’t even braai! Friday afternoon the whole country shuts down, as if someone had turned off the lights. So, one Friday afternoon we missed the last bus and had to walk for more than an hour to get home.

It’s really unfamiliar to us. We’re not used to their way of doing things. We don’t know where to find what. We have trouble finding the right bus. We struggle with the language. We struggle to pay the right price for the gifts we want to take home.

Then you realise once again how great our own country and its people are. Here we know everything. We know how to drive and where to buy something at the right price. Our friends are here. Our children are here. Our family is here. We belong here.

Actually, the world is not a Christian’s home. This world is only temporary. It’s actually a tent home that will be packed up at some point when we move to another world.

¹¹Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it.

I must confess that I sometimes forget this. I enjoy the work I do. I enjoy our country. I enjoy my friends and family so much that I don’t feel like a stranger on this earth.

That strangeness that I experienced in Israel, I do not experience here. On the contrary! There is nothing wrong with this, as long as we remember that our true place of belonging is not on this earth.

As the saying goes, let’s focus on life in the clouds and not get too attached to life here on earth. It’s only temporary, but the house with the real celebration that will last forever is still around the corner.

Scripture
1 Peter 2:9-12

Reflection
What keeps you holding onto this life?
What gives you energy?
How can you focus on your new home?

Prayer
Our Lord, thank you for preparing our new home for us. I want to go. I look forward to it. Amen.