Finding Your Way Home
The Final Installation in “How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place”
We reach our final chapter in How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place. For those who are subscribed you will receive your copy of the book (your choice of epub or PDF, suitable for Apple Books, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or your favorite reader) under separate cover. We warmly welcome new subscribers. There is never a cost nor shall be. Our mission is to serve the Church and all men of goodwill with reflections and, hopefully, insights on Christ and culture with biblical faithfulness. We are unashamed to say that we write with the prayer that the Spirit of God might move over these words strung together by this unprofitable clerk, bringing some to eternal life through Christ our Lord. May it be so.
You are never as liberated as when you embrace surrender. To fall before the God of the universe signifies not weakness but valiant strength. — Michael A. Milton
And now, the final installment of How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place: Why I Love the Church.
Finding Your Way Home
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. — C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
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I know many people who, as Phillip Yancey describes, have experienced disappointment with God.1 Their prayers were not answered in the way they had anticipated. Life didn’t turn out the way they had planned. Sickness or tragedy interrupted their dreams. The message of God in Psalm 84, Psalm 26, and John 14 has a special message for you. You do not have to understand the deep mysteries of the universe to come home to God. You can have your disappointment and your questions, too. You don’t have to check them at the door of grace (or else the gift of God would not indeed be grace). I read the words of a late theologian that are helpful in recognizing how suffering is not antithetical to divine blessing but may be a sign of it:
“Jesus calls upon men to give to one another what is most peculiarly theirs, what is most fully identical with themselves—-namely, their very lives. They are to do this because this is the way God deals with them. God gives men a share in his eternal life, and therefore, as servants of this God, they should share such life as they possess with one another.”2
The eternal life that Jesus brings, then, is not just another form of ordinary life, which is somehow freed from death and made interminable. Rather, eternal life is a new and unique order of life, an elevation and transfiguration of the ordinary, a share in the divine life. That is why a person's turning to Jesus has been called a "birth," since it is believed to involve his entering a new life and not simply his enhancing the life that he already possesses.
To be clear, there is no virtue in suffering per se. Indeed, we are warned not to suffer as a consequence of sin (1 Peter 4:152). But faith in suffering is another thing.—Michael A. Milton
To be clear, there is no virtue in suffering per se. Indeed, we are warned not to suffer as a consequence of sin (1 Peter 4:152). But faith in suffering is another thing. God may call you to the rocky, unpaved paths of tribulation. But in this, He will be with you. He might even allow you a perceived distance from Him so that you feel the longing for His courts even more acutely. I, too, have known that pining for God. Thus, when we come into His presence, the inconceivably climactic event will be sweeter still. That is the message of Psalm 84. Those who have known the backroads of loneliness and the joy of fellowship are more desirous of God’s presence and worship. Of course, it's possible that traversing the backroad of suffering and grappling with the sense of God’s abandonment has left you bitter and broken—doubting as you extend your frozen hands towards the smoldering campfire of grief, your sole source of warmth. You are not the first, nor will you be the last to feel this way. Yet, let this pain not embitter but rather drive you towards Calvary.
You are never as liberated as when you embrace surrender. To fall before the God of the universe signifies not weakness but valiant strength. Come as you are and lay your burdens at the foot of the cross. It is here, at the cross, where the mysteries of life begin to unravel: at the juncture where God became Man, crucified on a cross of timber that He Himself created, despised, cursed, and put to death by those He had formed, offering us life through His death. The Gospel's paradox lies at the heart of salvation's power. The unfulfilled prayers and shattered dreams that mark our journey often become the very paths leading us to relinquish ourselves in order to live for God. To embark on this journey is to find your way home. To find your way home is to invariably know the dwelling place of God.
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Please pray:
Lord of all, You sent Your Son Jesus Christ to live the life I could not and die for my sins on the cross. You raised Him from the dead on the third day. He ascended and is alive and coming again. Help me to repent, to turn from my sins, and to know new life in Jesus Christ. Make me Your child as I transfer my trust from self, others, or other things to the Lord Jesus. As Christ took my sins, I now receive the gift of His life. O Lord, make Your home in my life. I pray to You, the one, true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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The unfulfilled prayers and shattered dreams that mark our journey often become the very paths leading us to relinquish ourselves in order to live for God. — Michael A. Milton
Questions for Reflection
We pray these questions will help you develop a deeper relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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1. The Unsatisfied Longing: C.S. Lewis suggests our unfulfilled desires indicate we were made for another world. Reflect on moments when your experiences in this world—whether through joy, sorrow, or longing—have pointed you beyond yourself to a deeper yearning for eternity with God. How does this perspective of eternal longing influence your daily life and decisions, especially in times of disappointment or when God seems distant?
2. The Purpose Within Suffering: Arthur C. McGill speaks of suffering not as contrary to divine blessing but potentially as a sign of it, calling us to share in God’s very life. Reflect on a period of suffering or disappointment in your life. How can understanding suffering as a possible pathway to deeper participation in God’s eternal life change your view of past or current hardships? In what ways has suffering brought you closer to experiencing the life God wants for you?
3. The Pathway to Calvary: Following the Lord often leads through valleys of unfulfilled prayers and broken dreams, yet these very paths can guide us toward a deeper surrender to God’s will. Reflect on how laying your burdens at the foot of the cross has been or could be a transformative experience in your relationship with God. How does embracing the paradox of the Gospel—finding life through death, strength through surrender—offer you a profound sense of coming home to God?
Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1988).
Arthur C. McGill, Suffering: A Test of Theological Method (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2007), 24.
