Daily Devotion

“You do not possess a soul. You are a soul; you possess a body. If we find a longing within ourselves that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most likely explanation is that we were created for another world.”

C.S. Lewis · Back to Simplicity

Scripture

Hebrews 11:13-16 These people died in faith, not having received the promise, but having seen it afar off, and being glad to meet it, and acknowledging that they were strangers and sojourners on earth. Those who say such things show that they seek a country. If they had remembered the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. But they desire a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Reflection

That lingering sense of dissatisfaction in life is actually a guide home left by God for our souls. We often blame our current setbacks, loneliness, or emptiness on our circumstances, but Hebrews tells us that this feeling of being a "stranger" is proof of our identity. Like a machine you're debugging, though composed of parts, it's imbued with a sense of transcendence through your code. We don't seek solace for our souls in this world, but rather traverse it driven by our souls. Acknowledging ourselves as sojourners is not pessimism or world-weariness, but a clear-headed realization: since our roots are not in the earth but in the heavens, worldly gains and losses can no longer bind our true "self."