Finding Peace in Exile

"Sending for Paul, they listened as he told them about faith in Christ Jesus. (And) he reasoned with them about righteousness and self-control and the coming of judgement." - Acts 24:24-5, NLT

As I go back to work during the pandemic, I once again experience a transformation in spirit, where new challenges bring about new understandings of life. I go in and out of feeling that we are in a war, and I confirm the teachings that we are in exile, or on a prison planet.

This is not to say that it need be doom and gloom, for we are hopeful in the coming of a new age, and a new earth. Rather, it is a reminder that life is not what it seems to be, and remembering that I don't want to perpetuate the illusion by being superficial. In today's morning meditation, I thought about my basic interests, all the things that take me away from God and spiritual improvement, the things that I truly want to spend my time on - viewing the apparently glamorous lifestyles of people on Instagram, royal family watching, celebrity news, and TikTok - all things that ultimately make me feel incomplete and insufficient, but that pull me in and lead to feelings of otherness.

And in the pandemic the big difficulties are greater than the momentary fears that I am missing out on life by what I view on social media, but rather as I move through the discomforts of wearing personal protective equipment as I go back to work, and listen to the murmur of conspiracies, I feel defeated. But when I set my sight on God instead of on Mammon, I have the strength to accept that maybe I really am a prisoner of war, in exile, and maybe that's as it needs to be at this time.

When I do the next right thing by not stealing time at work, when I practice self-control by eating responsibly both nutritionally and ethically, and when I remember that life might in fact be inherently suffering, but that there will be a time of judgement when all wrongs will be righted, being in exile is completely manageable. In fact, when I prioritize the fundamental duties of life, there are even moments of peace and joy.

Through discipline and connecting to God’s word, I do not feel that I have lost a war. As I move through the new difficulties of the economy reopening, I can understand that this is a temporary struggle, and this too shall pass. In the meantime, I am empowered to move through the challenges of a foreign way of life with grace, peace, and joy when I focus on what needs to be done in the present, instead of worrying about the future.

Return to Eden by Brad Thompson