Reading 1 Peter 1:17 one day, I just thought “He makes it sound like you’re staying at a motel”. That perspective became the impetus for Motel Earth. This is more than a brand, it’s a reminder that we’re not here to stay.

When you stay at a motel there’s two things for certain: 1) you’re there for a reason or purpose and 2) it’s not your home. Whatever the reason may be, enjoyable or tragic or something in between, there is an understanding that it’s meant to be temporary. That awareness has an effect on how you conduct yourself during that time.

Whatever joys we experience in this life, however high, or trials, however low, are temporary moments on a path to eternity. This does not diminish their importance or impact or the reality of what we feel in these moments, but it should provide us with the proper lens through which to look at them.

For those saved and bought by the blood of Jesus, those joys are but a taste of what is to come, and those trials are moments of refining us for it. When something is processed, there are tools that are needed to ensure the process results in the optimal outcome. One tool we need for processing the temporary, is eternal perspective.

To be clear, PROPER eternal perspective is not simply a means of emotional escape. This is not an excuse to be disengaged from or apathetic about the world around us. On the contrary, it should push us to engage in a more grounded and intentional way.

Eternal perspective led Jesus to the cross. “For the joy set before Him” He endured the temporary. He engaged with and cared for the temporary in the greatest way creation as ever known. In truth, that which is temporary finds its most genuine value in its proper relation to the eternal.

So Lord, as Jonathan Edwards prayed, stamp eternity on our eyeballs. Empower us to love and care for this temporary dwelling You have given us, while also cultivating a desire and longing for our true home.

Let all that we do,

And the way that we see,

Be in light of the beauty,

That awaits us in Thee.

Welcome to Motel Earth. Enjoy your stay…but not too much 😉