“He was almost like a drifter who never went anywhere.”
--C.J. Petit (Stampede)
"We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away."
--Hebrews 2:1 (NIV)
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"I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys....
This ain't never been my home."
--Steve Earle
From the very beginning of his epistles Peter reminds his readers that they are pilgrims. They are not settlers, not drifters. A pilgrim is a temporary resident, or a sojourner. The Greek is paroikos, meaning a sojourner in a strange land whose thoughts ever return home. Abraham was a pilgrim once the Lord told him to get up and go. He never really truly settled for he was looking for a city whose builder was God. Our eyes, our journey should be ever towards that heavenly city, the abode of Christ who is there waiting to receive us. William Barclay writes, "The Christian sees all things in the light of eternity and life as a journey towards God."
A pilgrim so often is a stranger. "They were living in a culture that did not know them, did not accept them, did not understand them, and did not like them" (David Jeremiah) If you wonder why the world is so antagonistic towards you it is because you are a stranger in their land. You do not adhere to the culture of the people for you are a person of light moving in a direction that is opposite of those in the world. The words of F.B. Meyer should be carved in our minds, "Oh for more of the TENT LIFE among God's people!" Don't settle in Egypt's land. move onward towards the land flowing with milk and honey; seek actively the promised land.
Steve Earle's song continues:
"Sometimes the road was rocky along the way, boys....
But I was never travelin' alone."
No, we have a Guide, a traveling companion to help us along the way. One who knows the obstacles and how to overcome them. One who knows the dangers and how to prepare for them. We are not drifting and woe to the person who finds that that is their way of life. Going along with the crowd. Trying this, and trying that, bouncing along as the wind blows. no roots, no foundation.
In the West there were drifters. Sometimes it was out of necessity; too late to hire on at a ranch. But often, too often, it was because they were "footloose and fancy free" not caring where they were going. Not stable, not a person of strong work ethics so they went from place to place looking for handouts. Looking at the youth, it seems that many of them are drifters. They move from one job to another, always with an excuse of why they couldn't stay working at one place long enough to build a reputation of loyalty, honesty, and a person when given a job sees that it is done, and done right. They drift along just like the tumbleweeds that move beside them.
Ask yourself, do you have the spirit of the pilgrim or are you cultivating the spirit of the culture? Do you feel that you are in a strange land, among strange people or have you found yourself at home in the world, partaking of the world system. Do you turn your attention to the attraction of the foreign city, of the land of Egypt, of the wealth of Sodom, or are you a pilgrim moving through this wilderness--a "wayfaring stranger traveling through this world of woe."
Don't drift along through this life. Walk with purpose! Walk with focus! Know your destination and do not let anything move you away from it, or off the path. Keep moving ever upward and onward.
"I'm just a pilgrim on this road boys,
Until I see you, fare thee well."
D.C. Adkisson
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