We are Pilgrims
Making Our Way Home
Do you remember the theme song for the 1980s sitcom, Cheers? (Did I just seriously date myself or what?)
“Sometimes you wanna go | where everybody knows your name | And they’re always glad you came | You wanna be where you can see | Our troubles are all the same | You wanna be where everybody knows | your name.”1
But Abraham (in the book of Genesis) wasn’t going where everyone knew his name. In fact, Abraham was going where no one knew his name.
“The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”2
And Abraham picked up and left, to go somewhere he had never been, somewhere he knew not a soul.
What does “home” mean to you?
Is it where you grew up? Is it the people you live with (or near)? Is it where you found work, got married, and settled down?
Or is “home” a feeling? Maybe it’s where you feel known?
I affectionately call myself “the old oak tree” because of the deep roots I’ve put down. Born and raised in the same little county my parents were both born and raised, and where my own children were born and (are being) raised.
And (unless the Lord has different plans for me) this is where I aim to die.
I like it here. This county holds my story. I feel known here.
It’s nice to have a place you feel a sense of belonging.
Often times, though, news of the world’s wickedness finds its way to our headlines, and a longing for a different place is stirred within me. A place not of this world, but one for which we were made.
C.S. Lewis articulates this feeling quite beautifully: “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Living in a Broken World
In Tim Keller’s book, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, he explains the secular worldview regarding the brokenness encountered here and how the non-religious attempt to deal with it. To the secular person, this world is all there is. There is “no other happiness to offer. If you can’t find it here, there really is no hope for you.” He continues:
“In the secular worldview, all happiness and meaning must be found in this lifetime and world. To live with any hope, then, secular people must believe that we can eliminate most sources of unhappiness…”3
Secular society believes the purpose and meaning of life is found here and now. Brokenness and suffering do not serve as means to securing what they desire, namely comfort, safety, and pleasure, so suffering is seen as an interruption “in their ability to choose the life that makes [them] most happy.”4
They believe suffering has no good purpose behind it because it “can’t take you home; it can only keep you from the things you most want in life.”5
A Different Way
Isn’t it interesting that the Bible, in contrast, teaches us that not only should we expect suffering in this world, but that there is great purpose in it? Suffering is indeed at the very heart of Christianity. It is because of Christ’s suffering, that we can go Home.
Secular thought still creeps into the Christian mind however, we aren’t immune to it. We may believe in heaven, but too often, like the secularist, what we are able to experience with our physical senses here and now becomes our primary focus in life. It’s hard not to be drawn into the world we see, and touch, and smell. God’s creation is amazing to behold, is it not?
“God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1:31
The secular world, though, believes this is “as good as it gets,” and while we know better, we Christians can get wrapped up in this world and forget this isn’t all there is.
We can get bogged down with work demands, parenting responsibilities, goals, dreams, plans, and after-school practice.
We can scroll our feeds, fall into the trap of comparison, and long for nicer clothes, a prettier house, and luxurious vacations.
We clock 40, 60, 80-hour work weeks so we can enjoy “the good life.”
I remember driving home from grocery shopping about 20 years ago and marveling at the sky. The puffy cumulus clouds, illuminated from behind, were edged in a brilliant rose gold. Rays from heaven filtered through breaks and extended toward earth. It created a gorgeous backdrop for Jesus to return. It was perfect!
Except I said “No, not yet Jesus. There’s still so much I want to do.”
There are myriad beautiful things to enjoy here, but “here” is not where we’re meant to stay. C.S. Lewis wisely admonishes:
“I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, those earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy or echo or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country.”6
Our True Home
At the end of his life in Egypt, Jacob asked to be buried in Canaan, the land where “Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, [where] Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and [where] I buried Leah.”7
Canaan was home.
The land given to Abraham and his descendants by God. Though he had lived in Egypt for 17 years, he still considered himself a stranger there.
Like Jacob in Egypt, we are only in this world temporarily. “We are all just travelers, and our true home is in another world,” says Jeremiah Burroughs, the 17th century English Puritan pastor. Let us also endeavor to remember how the great heroes of faith felt in Hebrews 11: “They admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. They were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.”
Burroughs explains in his classic book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, that when we rightly understand our relationship to the world and how to live in it, we can be content “with whatever comes [our] way.” He uses this analogy to illustrate his point:
“If a person encounters bad weather while traveling, they must accept it; it’s just part of the journey. Both good and bad weather are part of the experience.”8
I had never thought of the fields and valleys of life being akin to the good and bad weather we experience while traveling. In another wonderful illustration of a sailor on the sea, Burroughs helps us keep our relationship to the world in correct perspective.
“Sailors don’t care what they’re wearing when they’re out on the ocean, even if they’re wearing patched and tarred clothes and just a rag around their neck. They think of when they get home, and they’ll have their fancy silk stockings and suits and frilly collars. That’s what keeps them going, knowing that when they get home, they’ll have whatever they want. Even though they’re stuck with just salt meat and hard rations, they know that when they get home, they’ll have it all.”9
I love the analogies he makes between our temporary home and our true home. They are simultaneously literal and figurative and help emphasize the truth that we are both foreigners and pilgrims here.
The Way, The Truth, The Life
The psalmist of 119 calls himself “a stranger on earth” and asks God to “turn my heart toward Your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things.”10 Similarly, Paul encourages the Colossians to “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”11
We must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. He is our guide on this pilgrimage. Though we will travel through many Vanity Fairs,12 we must work to abstain from worldly desires that can lead us off the Narrow Path.13 It’s hard to follow Jesus, and likely for all sojourners to the Celestial City,14 it may mean giving up some comforts. But, oh, how glorious that City will be for all who fight “the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith.”15
The House of God
This world is not all there is. Be encouraged!
The glimpses of beauty we experience here are but a foretaste of the splendor that awaits those in Christ! As the writer of Psalm 84 so magnificently proclaims, there is no better place imaginable than the house of God:
“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints with longing, to enter the courts of the Lord.
What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises.
What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.
For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those whose walk is blameless.”16
While we wait for the glorious day we enter the gates of Heaven, let us join David in his prayer to maintain godliness amidst a wicked world:
“Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies. My eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign Lord; in you I take refuge.”17
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18
Portney, Gary: “Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Cheers Theme.” Music from the TV series, Argentum Records, 2013. (For a stroll down memory lane, listen here!)
Genesis 12:1
Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, (Penguin Books, 2016) p. 74
Ibid., p. 16
Ibid., p. 23
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 114
Genesis 49:31
Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, (Modern Puritans, 2024) p. 69
Ibid., p. 69
Psalm 119: 19, 36-37
Colossians 3:1-2
Vanity Fair is a perpetual fair in the town of Vanity through which all Pilgrims must travel in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. “Vanity symbolizes the world as a whole, especially its opposition to Christianity from the very beginning. The demons established the Fair on purpose to try to divert heavenly minded pilgrims. It contains everything, good and bad, that the world has to offer—anything that could possibly distract and tempt a person on the way to the Celestial City.” (from LitCharts.com) If you have never read John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, and enjoy allegorical writing, I highly recommend it!
John Bunyan’s name for Heaven in The Pilgrim’s Progress.
See 2 Timothy 4:7
Psalm 84:1-2, 4-5, 10-11 *This is a mixture of the NIV and NLT translations.
Psalm 141:4, 8
Another of your Heartfelt Gems, Dearest Vanessa! ❤️ So Beautifully written. Thanks for continuing to Fill our Cups! Love ❤️ You!!
I love reading your essays! I think we all need this reminder to keep our eyes on the prize. We live in a world consumed with social media and comparison, which is a huge distraction from what’s really important. Thank you for your time to write these essays, as I look forward to reading each week. :)