Not Made for this World

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Posted by: Josh Modert, Marketing and Events Coordinator | Monday, May 12th, 2025 (12:00am)

So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.—1 Corinthians 15:21-22

Recently, my wife and I packed our young kids and their duffle bags into our car and made the manageable journey to Ohio. Our noble cause was the celebration of their great grandmother’s 90th birthday, which was also a family reunion on my wife’s side.  

When we arrived at the hotel banquet hall, I was quite surprised to find, not a few, but a couple hundred of my wife’s relatives filling the many tables. My kids were immediately excited to see all the other children running around. It was a lively gathering.  

A bit overwhelmed, I gravitated towards a familiar couple comprised of one of my wife’s cousins and her husband. Normally, we would open our conversation with some well-timed jokes, but this time would be different. Only a few months earlier this young couple tragically lost their six-year-old daughter due to complications from the removal of her brain tumor. As we talked, my children, ages eight and five, played joyfully with the parents’ remaining children around our feet. And, though we spoke of pleasant memories, I couldn’t help but see the weary pain, still fresh behind their eyes.  
 
Soon it was time to eat, and I took my seat at the round table across from my wife’s youngest sister. This was my first time seeing her in her wig, the mark of a young lady whose natural hair was recently claimed by six rounds of chemo. Her young daughter picked at the chicken strips on her plate while sitting on her father’s lap. The news this week for them? The cancer had spread to the lymph nodes. She’d have to undergo 13 more rounds of chemo, just to get a fighting chance. And yet, despite the elephant at the table, we still ate, we laughed, we caught up with one another. The relatives all celebrated Great Grandma, showed old pictures, sang the songs, ate the cake, and the many children continued to play at our feet, joyfully.  

When I returned to work Monday a text message buzzed my phone. I flipped it over to read the news, our family friend just passed away. She had been diagnosed with lung cancer only a week earlier. Born just the night before she passed, she was able to see her first grandchild right before she saw Jesus.  

When I flipped the phone back over all I could think about was how I just didn’t want this to be real life anymore. Like the family reunion, why must everything have this subtext, this elephant in the room, this weariness behind our eyes and in our hearts? I kept thinking, I just don’t like this world anymore, and I remembered one of my favorite quotes.  

If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.―C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 

A pastor at a funeral I once attended said something I'll never forget. He pointed out that when the earth’s first parents, in that garden, chose to partake of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, what they were really saying was, “We can handle it. We can handle knowing evil, and we can handle the consequences.” 

“...for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:17)

I think, with every sin each one of us has taken part in since, our voices have merely joined in saying, “We, too, can handle it.” 

In essence, we say to God, “Yes Lord, It’s worth it to us. We can handle disease and death. We can handle separation from You. We can handle broken homes and wayward children. We can handle parents saying goodbye to their six-year-olds. We can handle sick young mothers fighting to stay. We can handle a grandson not knowing the grandmother who waited so long to love him.”  

In the day we eat of it, it looks, good. 

At some point, we sober up. We realize, surely this was not what we were made for. Somewhere in our hearts we long to return. We long for that other world.  

The good, good, undeserved news is this: we are not condemned to the world we chose. We are not condemned to the world we keep choosing. We do, indeed, most wonderfully, have a Savior. The stories you heard are true. He not only overcame this world, he not only will make all things new, but the greatest miracle of all is He can make us new as well, so that we never go back... to this.  

So belong to Christ, friend, and know that your instincts are right, you were made for another world; one He has gone away to prepare. 

If you already belong to Him, remember again that you do, take heart. In this world we will have trouble, but He has overcome. May the joy of the Lord be your strength to endure this world.  

And remember, someday, we will all pack up, and travel to a family reunion, and when we arrive the tables will be filled. And we will eat, and laugh, and play, and get caught up, and there will be no more weary eyes because we will be the children joyfully playing at His feet. 

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