this world is not our home

news item: "Paris Syndrome" leaves tourists in shock

at first i figured well, while the french can behave rather idiotically at times, surely nobody's shocked anymore. but then i read the article, and it seems "paris syndrome" has a particularly adverse effect on the japanese. seems their culture is so foreign to that of the french, that unsuspecting travelers end up suffering from a wide variety of mental ailments after just a short time in gay paree. says one such tourist, who calls herself aimi: "for us, paris is a dream city. all the french are beautiful and elegant ... and then, when they arrive, the japanese find the french character is the complete opposite of their own."

the first thing i wondered was, if paris is such a shock to the system, how come the japanese love new york so much? maybe because they dont have such grand illusions of the big apple...

then another thought struck me... how come we Christians often dont suffer from "earth syndrome"? why are we sometimes so at home in a place that is the complete opposite of what our heavenly home is? i'm not saying that this place should make us crazy, but neither should it become our "dream city." Jesus said we should be in the world but not of it. i had a sunday school teacher who was very fond of saying "you can be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good." i'm not buying that for a minute. dont get me wrong, i'm not one to sit around pining for the day that Jesus takes me home, but if my mind isnt on heavenly things, how can i possibly reflect His light in a dark world?

there are 2 things that motivate me to share the Gospel... one is the very thought that God loved me so much that He sacrificed His Son for me. He suffered and died... and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for my sin. the other is the fact that the ultimate reward for accepting that free gift is spending eternity in heaven with Him, and i want as many people as possible to be there with me!

but for now, i'm here. i'm just a pilgrim, a guy traveling through. a stranger in a strange land. i have a job to do while i'm here, but at the end of the trip, i'm history, and there'll be no looking back. the japanese have expectations of beauty and elegance that paris can never live up to... i, on the other hand, have expectations that can never live up to the beauty and elegance of my heavenly home.