Pilgrim Songs I. Strangers and Pilgrims We are strangers here. The land is not our own, though we till its soil and build our tents upon its hills. We are pilgrims, passing through, nomads of the covenant, walking by faith toward a city we have never seen. The world offers citizenship in exchange for worship. It builds towers and calls them home, Babels of ambition that rise and fall and rise again. But we are looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." -- Hebrews 11:13 II. The Road Through the Valley The valley is long and dark. Shadows move at noon. The path is steep, the stones are sharp, and sometimes I cannot see the shepherd's staff ahead. But I do not fear. Not because the valley is safe -- it is not -- but because thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff comfort me, not because they keep the wolves away, but because they belong to the Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. The valley is not the destination. It is the road. And the road leads home. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." -- Psalm 23:4 III. The Weight and the Reward We do not run alone. A cloud of witnesses surrounds us, men of faith who finished well, women who received their dead raised to life again, martyrs who accepted not deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. So let us lay aside every weight, not only sins but distractions, not only addictions but ambitions that pull us from the path. Let us run with patience -- not sprinting, not collapsing, but enduring, enduring, enduring to the end. The reward is not a crown of gold but the presence of the King. The prize is not achievement but Christ himself. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." -- Hebrews 12:1-2 IV. Homeward There is a rest remaining, a Sabbath of the soul, a city where the gates are pearl and the river flows from the throne, where there is no temple because the Lamb is the temple, where there is no sun because the Lord God giveth them light. We sing our pilgrim songs while walking through the wilderness, not because we have arrived but because we are sure of where we are going. The road is hard, the night is long, but morning is certain. The city is prepared. The Builder is faithful. And the pilgrims are coming home. "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." -- Revelation 21:2