“Are you Hugging Yet?”

 

Yesterday, I saw a sweet group of people for the first time in months. Every one of them greeted each other with a hug, and as one approached me with arms out, she watched me bristle and then asked me, “are you hugging yet?”.  I’m not. I hope to be soon. I really miss hugs.

As all of us have discovered over the last few months, there is no substitute for the Real Thing. Virtual college. Drive through graduations, zoom meetings, church in our living rooms, zoom prayer groups, the beach with no beach access, and relationships without any physical touch leave us longing. We keep asking the questions, “How long will it last?’ and “When will everything be normal again?”.

Of course, no one really knows if or when life will look like it did back in 2019, but no matter what our post-covid world looks like, we must not settle for that comfort.

Let me be clear and vulnerably transparent: I love comfort. I seek it out in food and nice bedding and pretty things. I am not a risk taker…. at all, but I am concerned and convicted that my longing for comfort and normalcy has blinded me to what I should be longing for.

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church in Philippi warning and encouraging them to set their minds on eternal things and to not get deluded by the pleasures of this world.

“But one thing I do know: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.     All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view. And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well.  Nevertheless, we must live up to what we have already attained. Join one another in following my example, brothers….  For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.    But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.”             Philippians 3:13-21 abbr.

By God’s amazing grace, those of us who love Jesus Christ are not bound for destruction, but as His beloved daughter, the last thing I want to do is be an enemy of the cross of Christ. My goal, every day, must be for His Glory, and not for comfort. I must rejoice in the sufferings that conform me to our beautiful Jesus. This is not just a calling; it is a privilege! I look forward to enjoying a full belly after dining out again and I will be very thankful for the return of some earthly pleasures, but Oh! Please save me from letting that be enough. Precious friends, please long for better things with me. May our aching be for God’s glory and his Kingdom and not the reclimation of our own earhly kingdoms.

I love you and CANNOT wait to Hug you!