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The story is told of President Teddy Roosevelt returning from a hunting trip with great fanfare while a missionary who spent his life serving God comes home without notice. He asks God, "Why is it that the president gets this great welcome coming home from a hunting trip while I spend my life serving you and come home without a peep?" God answered, "You're not home yet."

It's something we just don't seem to get. We just don't see it. We say things like "To die is gain" and we give lipservice to "She's in a better place now," but we don't really get it, do we? I know innumerable Christians who both affirm the wonders of heaven and decry death. Or even Christ's return. "Not yet," they say. "Not yet." Because we are so deeply rooted in our world. Well, now, that shouldn't be a surprise. "We live here. Of course we're deeply rooted here." But the Bible says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15) Now that's a bit disturbing. We spend most of our lives loving this world and the things we can get from it, and here we're being told, "Stop it!" John goes on to write, "The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:17) Or, "There's something more! There's something better than this world and its desires!" And we Christians nod our heads and applaud and pursue it anyway.

We are, in Paul's words, "ambassadors for Christ." (2 Cor 5:20) This world is not our home. Now, as ambassadors, it doesn't require that we disdain the blessings God gives us to do our jobs in this "hostile environment." He gives us food and shelter, gifts, pleasures -- lots of stuff. Solomon wrote, "There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God." (Ecc 2:24) It is not wrong to receive with gratitude what God gives us here. But we should still keep our eyes on the prize, and that isn't here. We should live in the present for eternity. We must not be in hot pursuit of applause or comfort now to the neglect of our eternal mission for Christ. And while we believers generally acknowledge this, our actions and attitudes generally do not. You can tell that when God takes a loved one home or denies us that promotion we hoped for or allows hardship in our lives and we do not respond gratefully with "The LORD gives, and the LORD has takes away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21) We're not home yet. We shouldn't live like we are. "There's something so much more!"