Our Citizenship is in Heaven

I don't regret the choices I've made that have brought me to where I am today. I regretted some choices at first, but when it comes down to it, I feel I have stayed true to myself, followed my priorities, and that I am here for a reason. It's easy to mope, but then I find someone else who is suffering from something greater than anything I have ever dealt with, and realize things are not so bad for me. And even though things are tough for them, they know the hope of Christ. I have focused for too long on earthly, temporal things. I want an eternal perspective.

But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead. -Phil. 3: 7-11

I must admit, I don't wish to suffer or have a hard life. No one does. But my life as a Christian is not about comfort. It's hard to come to terms with. But if I really and truly rely on Christ, the sufferings are bearable. Honestly, the idea of possible sufferings I might face really scares me. I'm not saying, "Bring it on, I'm ready!" But I know that as I move forward, trials will come. And in the end, I will have gained everything that matters.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

...many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven.

-Phil. 3: 12-14, 18b-20a