Embrace the Fade

"All these people were still living by faith when they died.  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.  And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." ~ Hebrews 11:13-16

"But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body." ~ Philippians 3:20-21


This morning the Lord impressed on me the reality of how temporary this life is and the joy we receive from that realization.  I was reading Psalm 103, and the first thing God brought to my attention was verses 2, 5, and 9: the Lord has been good to me, and I must not forget it.  He has done much that I can bring to mind in order to remember His faithfulness when I am in distress.  And He does not make us suffer constantly.  Though He does use trials to refine us and grow us more into His likeness, not all of His blessings come in disguise.  And I am grateful for that.  I would not be able to stand under the weight of a constant barrage of trials, and I enjoy receiving good things from God in the midst of His discipline.  As verse 5 says, He gives us these good things so that we can be refreshed and strengthened for the new work He has prepared for us to do.

That was the main theme I picked up from Psalm 103, but verses 15 and 16 also caught my attention, leading me to the above passages, which took the majority of my focus.  The point that came from it was this: We are temporary; rejoice in it!  The Spirit's signature statement was, "Embrace the fade," or, "Welcome transition."  A lot of times I have a hard time letting go of certain groups or positions within a group, but God stressed to me that I am made to last only in eternity.  My position in this life can change at any moment.  And that's good in His eyes.  It's humbling to know that I have a valuable role to play where I am at any given point in time but that God can work just as well without me when I am gone as He can while I am here.  Even when I leave here, wherever here is, I still have a role to play: welcoming whoever is to take my place and leaving without regrets or reservations.  I must welcome the transition because it is a necessary step in my journey toward heaven and in the advancement of the Kingdom here on earth.

Sometimes I'll look around and see people, things, or interactions between people and/or things, and it will feel surreal.  I get the sense that my perception is that of a shadow, as if this present reality is only a dream from which we will eventually wake up to see true reality.  My grandfather's death was one such occasion, when the reality that he was "gone" never really sank in because he's not actually gone for good.  Eternity is more real to me in that case than this present reality is (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-18).  In fact, this life is the preparation stage for heaven.  We are collecting our eternal belongings—our character developed in Christ, the blessings we inherit by sharing blessings with others, our talents and abilities refined for our specifically assigned form of worship, etc.—and packing our bags, with the Spirit as our sturdy Vessel and our Father's side being our destination.  We can pack all we want, but unless Christ is our Vessel, all our belongings will fall through and we will not make it safely to the table of our God for the feast He has prepared for us.  Only dependence on Christ will ensure our arrival in heaven.  We can keep our belongings in our earthly containers and try to force them into our heavenly Vessel, but just as packing individual belongings in a suitcase is easier than packing entire unorganized bags of belongings into a suitcase, so removing our spiritual belongings from their earthly vessels will make it easier to store them in Christ.  All of life encompasses this process of packing and unpacking and repacking.  And it's a wonderful process, though it can be painful at times.  But remember, we are packing our bags after a long vacation on earth so that we can return home to heaven to be with our Father.  Thank God this world is only a tent for our temporary dwelling (2 Corinthians 5:1-3); praise Him for the unshakable city He is preparing for us (Hebrews 12:28)!  Welcome transition: much better is coming to replace the good we have now.  Though God made all of creation, and it is good in His sight, there is much better yet to come as this world fades away (2 Corinthians 5:4-8).

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

"—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." ~ James 4:14

Embrace the fade.