Lately I've been dousing myself in old Christian rock that I used to listen to growing up. Petra, DeGarmo and Key, Michael W. Smith, and more. Most recently DeGarmo and Key have been on my Blackberry, as I remember lead singer Dana Key who recently passed away. Just today one of D & K's songs "Aliens and Strangers" came on, which contains lyrics like "My closest friends are aliens and strangers, travelers here, living with danger." Later on, Key states that we're just "passing through." This is a common theme in Christian rock. The Grandfather of Christian Rock, the late Larry Norman entitled one of his albums Only Visiting This Planet, and also had a song called U.F.O. which said "He's (Jesus) an Unidentified Flying Object, we will meet him in the sky." All of this suggests that our real home is not this earth but that we should consider Heaven our home. I believe even T-shirts with the phrase "This World Is Not My Home" used to be popular among Christians.
I think that it is unfortunate to place so much emphasis on the afterlife, which no one can definitively prove anyway. Placing our sights on the future, which is undetermined, robs us of being fully present in the here and in the now, which is all that we have. There is also an air of disdain for this world in some of these songs, as if the world is a dirty, sullied place that needs to be conquered. Degarmo and Key has a song called At War With The World. Petra has songs such as Armed and Dangerous and even This Means War.
What I am trying to say is that this world is all we have right now, so instead of trying to conquer or overcome it, we should instead embrace it and the things in it. It should also be noted that along with a condemnation for this world, there is usually a partnering disdain for our bodies, which are things that need to be conquered or overcome. What I am saying is that we can trust this world, and Trust that It Is Good. We live in a wonderful world and all we have for sure is this lifetime, so we should enjoy it and also enjoy ourselves. Just as we can trust the world, we can trust our bodies and the things that they tell us. We should wake up each day and bask in the new moments that Life brings us. Also, we should embrace the feelings that our bodies feel, whether they are telling us to relax, slow down, or dance like there's no tomorrow. (I should note that I do think that there's more after this life, but what the afterlife is like, I have no idea, but I trust that it is Good, just as this life is.)
In conclusion, we are not Aliens and Strangers, or Only Visiting This Planet.
We Can Trust This Life. We Can Trust This World. We Can Trust Our Bodies. We Can Just Trust.
