Pastor Rick Warren offers a third and final metaphor to teach us God’s view of life in Chapter 6 of The Purpose Driven Life:
3. Life is a temporary assignment. Since our time on earth is brief, we shouldn’t get too attached. Just as citizens of a foreign country working in the United States must carry a green card, the author suggests that we should carry spiritual green cards to remind us that our citizenship is in heaven. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 2:11 (The Message)- “Friends, the world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul.”
In this regard, one question we need to ask ourselves in the aftermath of our ministry downsizing or position loss is: Has this adversity revealed a greater attachment to our material possessions than we realized? Pastor Warren explains why God allows a disconnect from worldly things:
“In order to keep us from becoming too attached to earth, God allows us to feel a significant amount of discontent and dissatisfaction in life- longings that will never be fulfilled on this side of eternity. We’re not completely happy here because we’re not supposed to be.”
Or, as C. S. Lewis once observed: “All that is not eternal is eternally useless.”
