Is it natural to be restless? Is it normal to feel both a need to be accepted, yet always feel a need to shake the mold you've placed yourself in? Is there such a thing as a dream being "fulfilled"? Is there ever a place in life where you can say, "This is it"? Honestly, I am a little afraid of being and feeling settled. It seems like you've become a little too content in a world that isn't meant to be our home. I have some dreams. But I know they won't be as wonderful as I imagine them to be--at least in the sense of them being "ultimate", where the story reaches an end and the journey's rise and climb has reached it's greatest glory. It believe it's like it says in Hebrews, that we look forward to a heavenly country(Heb. 11:6). Yet even so, I believe it gets better. We look forward to a heavenly King.
For most of my life, I have left the Kingdom of God as highly underrated...Transparently, throughout high school I was afraid of it. If Jesus returned, I wouldn't get to see the world, get married, become a worship leader (like the vision God has given me seemed to suggest), finish college and work some kind of job that may actually be enjoyable(in my mind, a writer and/or a worship leader, once again). I think to some degree that some of this was not bad. After all, I wanted to live the life God's given me, and live out His plan for my life. But the longer I live, the more I see how so many of the fairytales that always lay before me dragging me forward are not really something I can run my fingers through. They're either phantoms or figures with a much humbler appearance than I could tell when started earlier on the road. Although this could lead to depression (apart from Christ), it has led me to have different desires stirred up. Dreams of the hope that will never disappoint(Romans 5:5). It is my belief that all of those stirrings were really for my true destiny and future in Christ.
I'm not suggesting that we should all ditch this world and that there is no purpose, meaning, or joy in this place in the here-and-now, but instead, due to my own fault of looking for a climax in this earth, I am bringing to light the beauty of our future inheritance. I do not understand why we do not celebrate the return of Christ more, why there is not an excitement to return to Christ. He has saved us, He is sanctifying us throughout this life day-by-day, and one day..He will complete the work He's begun, and save us from the presence of sin and the flesh completely. Looking through Exodus, when God was establishing the stipulations for the passover, He told the Israelites to hold a feast of celebration(see Exodus 12), one in which their entire calendar would be arranged around. Just as the Israelites celebrated their salvation from the slavery of Egypt, we celebrate both our redemption from the slavery of sin, death and the devil and the anticipation of our freedom to come. I want to be more excited about these wondrous promises! I want to delight and rejoice in the hope that Jesus has saved me, and that one day He is going to come back for us. A very long time after the Exodus, when Jesus was at the last supper with His disciples, He said something beautiful foretelling that He would come back for His bride again: "I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
(Matthew 26:29 ESV) The sweet salvation story of the gospel hasn't ended yet..Jesus is going to come back. And we will see Him face-to-face. Let's get excited about this hope, this day that will fulfill every dream in the person of Jesus Christ.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw a the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”--Revelation 21:1-4
