This World Is Not My Home

Our country, and perhaps our world, are collapsing. As I survey the raging storm all around us, I suddenly realize that it no longer touches me. Perhaps because it has already ravaged me? What more is left to lose when all the tears, the rage, the despair, have reduced me to hatred for a world that hates me? I am numb, yet quiet. I am aware, but unconcerned. I am like one watching from the stillness in the eye of a hurricane raging around me, not touching me. Giant walls of separation rise between us, and yet I alone see the sun shining above. Its extraordinary really. So, I was inspired to write again.

Love, like a rose bud that never opens, dies.
Marriage, like oil and water that don't mix, separates.
Children, like acorns that fall on rock, fail to sprout.
Parents, like snowflakes on wet sidewalks, pass away.
Friends, like mirages in a desert, deceive.
Money, like water through open fingers, spills.
Fame, like tempest tossed clouds, dissipates.
Country, like railroad tracks on quicksand, collapse.
Leaders, like foxes in a henhouse, corrupted.
Clergy, like a hall of mirrors, confuse.
Churches, like a masquerade ball, playacting.
Media, like gypsies gazing at crystal balls, lie.
Faith, like lost car keys, useless.
Hope, like vision in a fog, fades.
Charity, like blood from an open wound, dries up.
Enemies, like snakes in the grass, coiled.

"Vanity of vanities. Everything is vanity" said the wisest man who ever lived.

And I agree. But that is the storm outside.

"But He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.”

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." - Galatians 6:14

The eye of the storm is that stillness where the eye of faith recognizes that this collapsing world is NOT my home. Nor am I alone in that eye; I share the vision with a whole cloud of witnesses:

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." - Hebrews 11:13-16

Rage on, world. You have no power over me, no matter the failures and the sorrows and the tears and the fears.