About “the whole family of the highest and true God,” Augustine writes,
Its members have a life in this age which is not in the least to be regretted: a life which is the school of eternity, in which they make use of earthly goods like pilgrims, without grasping after them, and are proved and corrected by evils. City of God I.29*
Everything I experience, whether the times are “good” or “evil,” is part of my divine education. I should not despise adversity nor grow fond of any prosperity. The Lord gives me adversity “to test my merits or chastise my sins” (ibid.). And I will thank him in my struggle, because I believe that I have “an eternal reward for my pious endurance of temporal ills” (ibid.)—whether the ills are brought as fatherly correction of my sins or as my Maker’s refining fire that prepares me for some good work to come. God has given me adversity to teach me the futility of hording earthly goods and desiring temporal pleasures. Every day I conclude that the earth is still under the curse, and every day I am assured that this is not my home. I am a stranger and exile, and I seek a better country. If I found myself with too much comfort here, I might desire citizenship here. But because I believe that I have a place prepared for me in another city, I will find neither satisfaction in the yield of this world nor relief in the supposed security of this present age. Every earthly good that I gain is of tremendous value, and I will bless the name of the Lord when he gives them to me. I will bless him when he takes them, too, because they were only ever here for me to use as a tool in my education. If he takes them from me, then my education will go on without them. If I die because he takes them, then I know my education has ended altogether, and I am ready for my eternal occupation.
I will not desire the tools more than their intended purpose. I will not hold dear the pilgrimage more than the holy place that is my destination. I will not value these visible things as anything compared to the invisible God who gave them. I have a life in this age not in the least to be regretted.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. . . . These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Heb. 11:8-10,13-16 ESV
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