Home.

It's interesting to live in a country where you are very different from everyone else around you.

It doesn't take long to realize that you don't quite fit in.

We can't order the simplest things at restaurants. You can hear people talking about you because you know the Japanese word for "foreigner" but you have no earthly idea what they are saying. You have to spend time in the immigration office getting your alien card so you have some form of identification. And the list goes on and on....

But it's not like that in America.

We are just another American Citizen. We look American. We act American. We dress American. We are American. No one looks at you as if you don't belong. No one has to try to communicate with you using hand motions and simple words. You can order food in detail at restaurants. You just fit in.

But in a way, as Christians, living here in this world feels more like the first country then the second.

We are misunderstood. We are mocked. We can feel alone. We can sometimes be unable to communicate to someone in a way they can understand us. We are just passing through here, waiting for eternity with our precious Jesus. Because in the end it was where we were created to be.

So I wonder as I sit here in my bedroom: Am I trying harder to fit in or am I trying harder to prepare for beyond the now? It is so easy to want to fit in here.

But America is not my home.
Japan is not my home.
This world is not my home.

And remembering this fact helps me put my life into perspective.

"Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever."(1 John 2:15-17)