Exile

What I termed 'stranded' yesterday as a theme can also be referred to as 'exile'. This is how Dallas Willard puts it:

We have to follow a servant God, and make his kingdom, his way, our way. It means we give up our self-centered kingdom for God’s kingdom. Often we need to experience exile before we can give up our personal kingdoms for God’s kingdom. Exile is a formative experience because it is in exile that we allow our kingdoms to be torn down. When we acquaint ourselves with God’s kingdom, we find that the way of this kingdom is servanthood. To serve is to perform an act of love, but most people fail to serve because they have a sense of scarcity in their own lives. We can serve only out of abundance.

We learn in exile that God is enough, that his kingdom is sufficient and will never pass away. When we live as servants, we are servants with our whole lives; servanthood is not just a set of generous actions. When we die to our own kingdoms and to ourselves, fruit comes from strength that comes from life that comes from an inner source of vitality that comes from being a servant in God’s kingdom.

Jeremiah 29:7
Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.