Sojourning

Sojourning.

What is it?

Staying or living in a place temporarily.

‘Temporarily’ being key word.

This idea of staying in a place temporarily…for a brief time…for a little bit…it’s short…like life.

Brief.

Short.

Temporary.

Temporarily here on this earth to love God, love others.

I started my Land of My Sojourn IG acct in June of 2019. Like this blog, it was something that just kind of popped out of me. Maybe it has to do with this ‘Sharing’ idea. With my first IG post, I wrote a blurb, explaining the WHY behind the name Land of My Sojourn. And I wanted to share that with you.

I wrote on June 28th, 2019: ‘It all started when we read through the Bible as a church last year. The word ‘sojourn’ stuck out to me many times as I read through the Old Testament in the ESV. This life, this life that God has given me, is my sojourn, this world I live in, the land I walk, wander, through. Since then the phrase ‘land of my sojourn’ has been stuck in my head. And it has to do with living life with God, the Creator, as He created me, to express His beauty and creativity through art…my art, the art He gave me to express Him to others.’

I went on to say that I didn’t know what that creativity would look like, but I started with a poetry project. I said I wanted to write more and express myself through writing, sketches, books arts and perfume blending.

(Now, close to two years after writing that, I know I am a writer, so I wasn’t wrong about that one!)

This land I walk through…this life God has given me…it’s so…temporary.

Maybe the loss of my dad has put the temporariness of life in the forefront of my mind.

Seven or eight years ago, as a young, single, 30-something woman I said often, ‘I’m here for a limited time only; I want to do what He wants me to do.’

It was the ‘I’m here for a limited time’ part that I really repeated, and really meant and I said it with joy.

With knowing that there is MORE up ahead.

With the knowledge that this life IS NOT all there is.

With the joyful expectation that one day I will be with Jesus; living life in eternity with Him.

There is more to this life than what we see.

So much more.

This process of life — this sojourning, this temporary stay on this earth, in this physical body — it’s a beautiful thing.

Beautiful, if temporary.

My dad was keenly aware of the ‘more’. The more of life, the more with Jesus, looking forward to the heavenly more. Maybe his physical sufferings in his body made him more aware that what we see now is not all there is.

One of my very favorite Bible verses is from 2 Corinthians 4. In verse 16 it says, ‘Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal’. (NKJV)

These verses give me so much hope. I let them sit in my heart, in my soul, in my mind…I let them give me encouragement, this is more. This is not all there is. We are just sojourning, my friend, just sojourning.