{"id":5181,"date":"2026-01-23T08:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5181"},"modified":"2026-01-23T08:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:57:14","slug":"just-passing-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/23\/just-passing-through\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Passing Through"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
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Nebraska\u00a0is a place that I have never called home.
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It is a Great Plains state that I have experienced from time to time on my way to somewhere else.
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The Nebraska locale that I happen to know best is a small town along Interstate 80 called North Platte.\u00a0To date I\u2019ve stopped in North Platte on three occasions.\u00a0
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Once I stopped there to fill my gas tank and stretch my legs \u2013 after which I kept right on driving.
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Back in college I made a second visit, one that lasted a good deal longer. I was attending a retreat at a nearby camp when the North Platte River reached flood stage and began overflowing its banks.\u00a0The students\u00a0in our college group became a rescue squad, filling sandbags to keep the water from inundating the camp.
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My wife-to-be was also part of that group, although at the time we weren\u2019t even dating.\u00a0I couldn\u2019t help noticing, however, \u201cThere\u2019s a woman who knows how to fill a sandbag\u201d \u2013 something that I filed away for future consideration.
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My third adventure in North Platte was entirely unplanned.\u00a0Coming back from a high school mission\u00a0trip that I had been leading in Colorado, one of our vans suddenly broke down \u2013 one mile from the North Platte exit.
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A local mechanic diagnosed our problem and then got on his computer, only to discover that the one part required for the repair was available at just three sites west of the Mississippi River \u2013 in Texas, somewhere on the West coast, and in Wyoming.
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While the mechanic graciously made a round trip to Wyoming with one of our adult leaders and then fixed our van, the remaining leaders of our trip were marooned in North Platte, Nebraska, with a group of tired and restless teenagers for 48 hours.
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It was a dark chapter in youth ministry.
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Perhaps you have been an actual resident of North Platte and loved it.\u00a0To me, that Nebraska town is an illustration of how we all are compelled to spend time in places that are not our true home.
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The New Testament book of I Peter says that those who follow Jesus are \u201caliens and strangers\u201d in this world.\u00a0This is not our ultimate place of residence.
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Not everyone thinks this is good news.
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All we have ever seen and known and experienced is in this world.\u00a0This is where our ambitions and our passions and our hopes and our dreams are being played out.\u00a0This is where we go to school, and take our vacations, and keep our bank accounts, and swipe our name badges to go through security in the lobby.\u00a0Many of us are fundamentally committed to being this-world residents.
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We might actually think it would be neat to run for mayor of North Platte.
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Beyond all doubt, God is nuts about this world.<\/em>\u00a0He loves it.\u00a0After all, God\u00a0invented it.\u00a0He superintends all of its details.\u00a0God\u00a0even chose to be born in the North Platte of ancient Israel \u2013 a dusty little town called Bethlehem \u2013 and invested at least three decades working, living, eating, laughing, teaching, traveling, and ultimately dying, all within about 100 miles.
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But this is not home.
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We might say that the world is North Platte.\u00a0We\u2019re here for a while.\u00a0During that time, we are called to serve, just as we tried to help make things better by sandbagging a river.\u00a0And while we are here, we are likely to experience a variety of breakdowns.
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But no matter what, we must bear in mind that we\u2019re always on our way somewhere else.\u00a0We’re headed for our true destination.
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The author of Hebrews tells us, \u201cBy faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance,\u00a0obeyed and went,\u00a0even though he did not know where he was going.\u00a0By faith he made his home in the promised land\u00a0like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents,\u00a0as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.\u00a0\u00a0For he was looking forward to the city\u00a0with foundations,\u00a0whose architect and builder is God\u201d (11:8-10).
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The reason we shouldn\u2019t hang on to this world for dear life is that God is intent on giving us the fullness of dear life at the end of our here-and-now life.\u00a0We\u2019re on our way to \u201cthe city with foundations.\u201d
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Scripture tells us that our future is going to be new heavens and a new earth \u2013 our present world reborn and remade.
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So, if you haven\u2019t yet had the fortune of visiting Nebraska, just hang in there. It\u2019s possible that we\u2019ll all get to experience a redeemed version of it in the next world.
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That will definitely be a sight to see.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Nebraska\u00a0is a place that I have never called home.\u00a0It is a Great Plains state that I have experienced from time to time on my way to somewhere else.\u00a0The Nebraska locale that I happen to know best is a small town along Interstate 80 called North Platte.\u00a0To date I\u2019ve stopped in North Platte… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[377],"class_list":["post-5181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-new-creation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5183,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5181\/revisions\/5183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}