Strangers on this Earth

    Living as an expat in a foreign country has great advantages. You get to meet many new and wonderful people who have different backgrounds than you. You get to learn to communicate in another language, experience a different culture, and even expand your appreciation of different foods. However, it also brings into your life some stressful things, one being that you always have to be on your toes and fully aware of the status of your visa. Recently, I ran into difficulties with this and had quite a scare. I thought I might even get kicked out of the country.

    Let me try to explain to you how I felt when my status in this country was called into question. Besides being very frightened and in a state of shock, I also felt a depressing weight of sadness come over me. I thought to myself, 'No matter how long I live in this place, I will always be considered a stranger, a foreigner, one who doesn't really belong.' Those who belong here, no matter what mistake or evil thing they do, can never be kicked out of this country. They can certainly get punished but they cannot be kicked out.

    Recently I was reading the first and second books of Peter in my Bible and I came across the analogy of believers as foreigners. I had read it before, but I hadn't understood it as well as I did that day. "Since you call on a Father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear" the apostle Peter says in I Peter 1:17. And further on, he adds "Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul" (I Peter 2:11). As a foreigner, you don't really belong. You are usually only there for a while, and you always have to get permission to stay. For me, I always try my best to adjust to the culture, but people seem to shrug it off when I make blunders, because after all I am a foreigner. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, Peter suggests that you see yourself as a foreigner and not as "authentic" people of the world. If we are truly people of this world, then we would belong, and we would let ourselves behave worldly, following sinful desires and doing whatever other people happen to be doing. Instead, he urges us to curb those sinful desires and live in reverent fear of our Creator. 

    I want to remind us all that we are foreigners on this earth and to encourage us to live as such, being fully conscious that we are only here temporarily. Our citizenship is not of this earth but our citizenship is in heaven. So let us do good to others and honor God while we are here -- no matter how tough things may get -- as we set our eyes and our hearts on our true and beautiful home. 

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