set your mind on things above

Back in March I made a plan to read through the Old
Testament before I left, and even though I should be somewhere around Joel or
Amos by now, I am still in Ecclesiastes.  But God in His infinite mercy is showing me
exactly the thing I need to learn right now before I come back to the states-
He has set ETERNITY in my heart (Ecc 3:11).  In the 15 days immediately after I get home I
have two wedding and three graduations to attend, which I am absolutely so
pumped for, but a graduation does not “redeem us from the power of the grave”
(Ps 49:15) and there is no ultimate saving power in a marriage.  These things are joyful, but they are all
eventually “a chasing after the wind” in King Solomon’s words. One really cool
thing about being in this program is that its been a little easier to “set my
mind on the things above, not on earthly things” (Col 3:2) because we have an hour of quiet time every morning,
then group worship, and then we sit around for an hour and talk about what God
is doing in our lives and hearts and internships and colonia ministry, then we
have a different teacher fly in almost every week, people from all over the
country coming to impart their knowledge on us, and then we go to our different
internships or colonias, depending on the day, and allow God to move in
whatever cool ways He wants to through our conversations.  So the challenge will come when I go home-
will I seek my reputation and approval, or will I seek first the fulfillment of
the Kingdom of God?  When we don’t have the title of Missionary
attached to ourselves, is it a little harder to fully set our minds on things
above?