I would challenge you to surrender to the call of heaven. This destiny provides meaning and significance.

Have you seen the movie Antwan Fisher? This film tells the moving story of a young man who struggles with anger and pain because of the abuse he experienced growing up in a foster home. He feels disconnected because he doesn’t know his family. His deepest desire is for family, to know to whom he belongs, to have a home.

While serving in the navy, Antwan is encouraged to find his family by a navy psychologist (played by Denzel Washington), who serves a mentor and father figure in his life. With bits and pieces of information, Antwan heads out on his search, and he is successful. He learns his father is dead but meets his father’s family. Then an uncle takes him to meet his mother.

As he enters the apartment of the woman who gave birth to him in prison, he is filled with anticipation and hope that this is going to be a joyful reunion. But it’s not. She sits there, not knowing how to respond. It’s as if she’s in shock. The meeting is a disappointment.

Disappointed and once again rejected, Antwan returns to the home of his aunt. He walks through the door, and to his surprise he finds a room full of people – his extended family that has gathered to meet him. He is swallowed up in a sea of love and acceptance. And when he walks into the dining room, there is an enormous feast, a banquet in his honor. His grandmother, the matriarch of the family, says, “Welcome home.”

As we live the Christian life, we must embrace the tension of both living this life to its fullest down here and at the same time understanding that this is not our home. We are pilgrims on a journey to our real home, where there is a family and a banquet waiting for us, and a Savior eager to say, “Welcome home.”

Purpose, Passion, Perspective

The apostle Paul points us to the perspective and the motivation that should anchor us on our journey. Read carefully these words from 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. Weigh them. Let your mind absorb them.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.