First of all, this Christian band has an awesome name! I am confident they base it on Ephesians 4:29, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear”. It’s a verse that encourages building up one another with wholesome words versus tearing down others with rotten words.
This beautiful song is about the realization and admission that when we experience tough times we need to remember we are not home yet. We will see problems in this life in a better light if we look through the lens of heaven’s glory. The apostle Paul writes, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us”. (Romans 8:18).
Another biblical message relative to this song is that we don’t belong here. And in sync with that concept is Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself”. The apostle Peter writes that we are aliens, strangers, or foreigners (I Peter 2:11). We do not belong here but rather we belong in heaven; however, we have to travel through this life to get to our final destination of glory where there are no problems, trials, or tears (Revelation 21:1-4).
If we are having severe difficulties juggling with the problems of this world as a Christian, maybe we need to remember who we are and whose we are. Maybe we need to spend more time looking up in the Spirit and less time looking down in the mouth. And I am very well aware of the saying, “When you are up to your neck in alligators it’s hard to remember what you went into the swamp for”; however, we also need to know we belong to Jesus and before long it will be over and we will be with Him in glory. Paul calls it momentary, light affliction in II Corinthians 4:16. It ain’t easy but we have to fight on and focus and refocus daily.
Read II Corinthians 4:16-5:10 and then listen to an encouraging song by Building 429 called Where I Belong. Then have a day with some peace and serenity and joy in the Lord.
2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, since in fact after putting it on, we will not be found naked. For indeed, we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a pledge.
Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad.