Just Passing Through - Martin Wiles

I am only a foreigner in the land. Don’t hide your commands from me! Psalm 119:19 NLT

I was passing through; I had no plans to stay forever. 

As a pastor’s son, I passed through many places. We passed through Hilda, South Carolina, and stayed for three years. Next, we passed through Jackson, Tennessee, where we stopped over for four years. Then we went to Cameron, South Carolina, where we passed through in one year. Finally, we journeyed to Orangeburg, South Carolina, and settled for five years. By the time the trip ended in Orangeburg, I had graduated high school. I thought I had finished passing through, but then God called me to preach, and I passed through some more places: Branchville, Iva, Harleyville, and Hodges, South Carolina. 

God’s Old Testament people passed through quite a few places themselves. They passed through four hundred years in Egyptian slavery. Next, they stopped over in Assyria for a couple of hundred years. Then they passed through Babylon for seventy years. But wherever they passed through, they never forgot where home was. Neither did they forget God’s commands and their responsibility to obey them. 

I’m not considered a foreigner unless I visit another country. God, however, considers me a foreigner regardless of where I live. I can travel the world and never find a place I can truly call home. My journey here is temporary. I’m just passing through. And when I leave on my final journey, I can’t take any of the things I’ve accumulated. It makes sense, then, that I should travel with a light load instead of burdening myself with things that make the journey unenjoyable. 

My passing throughs taught me to hold things lightly, even in many relationships, except for the one person who’d never betray or leave me.  Believers are just passing through earth to a new heaven and earth. Our priorities on our journey determine whether the trip will be enjoyable or depressing. 

Let loving God and people be the only baggage you carry as you pass through. 

Prayer: Father, thank You that when we have completed our passing through, we will be in heaven with You eternally. 

Tweetable: Have you realized you're just passing through? 

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