Heaven - Ellen Chauvin | Soaked & Sprouting

From Homesick to Home: Exile

August 11, 2014 by Ellen 2 Comments

“Mama, you know how Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit? If someone isn’t a Christian, do you think they are filled with evil spirits?”

“Well darlin’, it’s one or the other.”

One or the other. A choice. That’s where I was.

I was lost as a goose without Mama. I wish there was a prettier way to write it – something more profound. But I was just lost. Floundering. Grieving. Homesick and feeling like an exile (Exiled – to be away from one’s home). I had to make a choice. Would I camp here in my misery and grief? Or would I live the life God had called me to live.

I had to decide. I could exist here in exile, throwing a huge pity party and missing Mama, or I could follow the prophet Jeremiah’s advice on how to live as an exile.

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” Jeremiah 29:4-7 (NLT)

God is telling the exiles to accept their captivity. They weren’t going home any time soon. They needed to make homes for themselves. To live as exiles, we must do the same. Like tenants in rental houses, we need to make this earth as much our home as we can. Plan to stay, get comfortable; but know this is not our permanent home.

The exiles in Babylon were encouraged to build families in order to keep the Jewish blood line from becoming extinct. We also need to build our families and friendships. Doing this will establish close relationships here. Get to know your neighbors and co-workers. Tell them about your real home. Share with them the hope we have. Be a part in keeping God’s kingdom growing.

We need to go where God sends us, and grow where He plants us.

We also need to pray for the cities where the Lord has sent us into exile. Pray for peace in your city. Pray for prosperity in your city.

Why do we need to do all this? I certainly didn’t feel like it, after Mama’s death. I felt like a four year old, about to throw a temper tantrum: arms crossed and bottom lip pouting. I didn’t want to make myself at home and build relationships, much less pray for my city. Why did I have to do all this?

Because the exiles were the best of the best.

2 Kings 24:14-15 (NLT) King Nebuchadnezzar took all of Jerusalem captive, including all the commanders and the best of the soldiers, craftsmen, and artisans—10,000 in all. Only the poorest people were left in the land. Nebuchadnezzar led King Jehoiachin away as a captive to Babylon, along with the queen mother, his wives and officials, and all Jerusalem’s elite.

All of Jerusalem’s elite were taken into exile. The Babylonians didn’t hesitate to use the best of God’s people to help build and strengthen their land.

As God’s people, temporarily exiled here on earth, we are to be shining examples to the world. The wheat among tares, the silver floating above the dross. We are to glorify God and shine His light in all that we do.

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may be innocent and pure as God’s perfect children, who live in a world of corrupt and sinful people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky” Philippians 2:14-15 (GNT)

It’s a choice we make. One or the other. Walk intimately with Jesus, be the best we can in His strength and shine His light. Or blend into the world…

What choice are you making?

To read Part 1, click here: Stranger

To read Part 2, click here: Sojourner

Photography by John Chauvin

From Homesick to Home: Sojourner

August 4, 2014 by Ellen 6 Comments

It was poignant. Going through Mama’s things. Some of it we recognized, and memories flooded us. The large baking sheet my daddy always used at Thanksgiving, when he made his homemade yeast rolls. The cast iron Aunt Jemima bank that was always in the kitchen. Mama’s needlepoint hanging on the wall.

Other things were a mystery. Maybe gifts from friends? Or from an old aunt who had downsized? The most heart wrenching of all, though, was the pile of trash. Years of accumulated “stuff.” To be thrown out. Into the garbage. Gone. Like Mama. There has to be more! My heart ached. I knew my Mama was more than piles of trash. I knew she was more than stuff. She was a living human being who had touched peoples lives. And yet, these garbage bags, and a few mementos were all that remained. I could touch these things, but they weren’t Mama. They weren’t her hands I could hold, or her voice I could hear each week saying “Hey darlin’!” They weren’t her advice or wisdom I would always ask for.

“Mama, I’m planting petunias, will they come back next year?”

“Well, darlin’, they may. Are you planting or setting out?”

“Um, I don’t know – what’s the difference?”

Turns out, planting is starting a plant from seed. Setting out is planting a seedling, or young plant. Oh, and did you know that hot water sets the stain? And if you gargle with warm salt water, your sore throat goes away. And Vicks Vapor Rub is the go-to home remedy for a chest cold.

Wonderful memories. Memories that will fade away in time. Temporary. King David recognized this. In 1 Chronicles 29:15 he said “We are sojourners before you, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.” (NASB, NLT).

A sojourner, a tenant…leaving no trace behind. And that’s it? At the end of our lives, there will be no trace, nothing left? In the words of the apostle Paul “May it never be!”

Packing up Mama’s house made me realize that I don’t want my life to vanish. I don’t want to leave behind just a pile of stuff. I want to make a difference.

Max Lucado said it best in God’s Story, Your Story: “You are so much more than a few days between the womb and the tomb.”

In order for our days here on earth to count, we must make the most of every opportunity (Ephesians 5:16). Don’t sleepwalk through this life! Live aware, with eyes wide open for opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus:

Mow the grass for the neighbor whose yard is overgrown. Give a helping hand. See the opportunity, not the aggravation.
Respond in kindness, not in kind, to the cranky store clerk.

In addition to having our eyes wide open, we should hold our hands wide open…not clinging too tightly to the things of this world.

Jesus said “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)

Warren Wiersbe sums the scripture up this way: “It is not wrong to possess things, but it is wrong for things to possess us…What does it mean to lay up treasures in heaven? It means to use all that we have for the glory of God.”

Using all that we have for the glory of God! What an opportunity to leave a legacy of spiritual riches, not worldly possessions.

What legacy have you received? What legacy will you leave? Will it be temporary? Or will it endure forever? Until next week…

Photos by John Chauvin

« Previous Page