Living in a megapolis like Delhi is learning to live with chaos and learning to live by faith.
In 2023, the capital city ranked 180th, among the bottom ten cities, according to world happiness rankings.
Whenever I feel like giving up on living in Delhi, I imagine a new life in a different country.
During the stress of the pandemic, I googled the easiest places in the world to emigrate from India.
With its central location, enjoyable climate, stunning beaches, affordable cost of living, political stability, low crime, and cultural diversity, Portugal was most appealing.
I want to enjoy ease of operations, corruption-free administration, hassle-free movement, and law & order that wants to serve you not exploit you. How good it would be to live in a place of peace. I dream of clean air, easy-to-navigate traffic, and easier-to-use public transport.
In these escapist longings, I see a life with more order, comfort, pleasure, and predictability.
My heart craves a better quality of life with more opportunities to excel, greater confidence in ruling authority, real freedom to be a Christian, and safety for my wife and little children.
What a relief it would be to live in a society with people who are friendly, respectful, responsible, helpful, and peace-loving.
Surely a better city in a great country must be the way into this new life. But then I question myself.
Why do I long for this “better country?” What is my heart really yearning for?
The Groaning is Real
It is natural to want to run away from adversity, opposition, discomfort, and disorder.
Yesterday, the grumbling Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt. Today, this groaning Delhi-ite wants to flee to Portugal.
The psalmist validates this instinct to run away. When his heart is in anguish and the terrors of death fall upon him, he says, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest” (Ps. 55:6).
The urge to despise chaos and desire order is not ungodly. It is to be truly human because God made us in his image (Gen. 1:26).
The beauty of order and the freedom of structure comes from ruling in the likeness of God (Gen. 1:28). Chaos marks the dominion of the devil (Matt. 12:43-45).
To desire more order in my life is to desire more of God in my life (1 Cor. 14:33).
But could a new place really gratify my desire for a better life?
Not Home Yet
To be clear, moving to a new place for good reason is a perfectly appropriate and godly thing to do. Living by faith can easily mean moving by faith. But trusting in earthly cities to deliver us from the chaos of a fallen world is a misguided hope.
I have to remind myself that no great country has found a way to resolve the great malady that plagues the world. Evil lurks in every heart, in every city, in every corner of the world, sometimes even disguising itself with good deeds (Luke 18:9).
My heart wants more than simply a move. It is actually longing for something else. I am groaning for the new creation (Rom. 8:23).
A physical change of location can only bring some relief in felt experience. It cannot be the heaven for which my heart is searching.
It is natural I do not feel at home in the world because this world is not my home.
In this world, I should expect to suffer a little while, face trouble, go through adversity, feel out of place, and wrestle with a constant sense of alienation.
All this, because I am an alien, exile, foreigner, and stranger in this world (1 Pet. 5:10, John 16:33, Acts 14:22, John 15:19, 1 Pet. 1:1-2, 2:11-12).
Living by faith means answering the worst of our groaning with the best of God’s promise. We are not home yet.
A Heavenly City
My dream of a glorious city is not a pipe dream.
The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: “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. 11:16).
In Christ, we are heirs of a better country, a heavenly one, whose designer and builder is God (Rom. 8:17, Heb. 11:10).
In this new and heavenly city, all our longings for a place of rest will be satisfied.
Every nation will walk by its light. All the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. The gates of this glorious city will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there (Rev. 21:24-25).
Living by faith means enduring the “light and momentary troubles” we face because we know God is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Cor. 4:17).
The King Who Entered the Chaos
My longing to escape chaos into comfort makes me marvel at Jesus’s desire to descend from comfort into chaos.
Why did the one who dwells in glory descend into this dark world? What moved him to become as dependent as a baby?
Why did he enter the chaos of danger, displacement, betrayal, rejection, and death—even death on a cross? (Luke 2:12, Matt. 2:13, John 1:11, Matt. 3:21, Phil. 2:6-8)
Jesus entered into our chaos so we can enter into his rest (Matt. 25:23, Heb. 4:9-11).
In his moment of decision, when his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground, even the Lord Jesus asked for a way around the chaos of the Cross (Luke 22:42). But in his love, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly and embraced the chaos that gives us rest (1 Pet. 2:23).
Living by faith means any power to persevere for Christ only comes from seeing the perseverance of Christ. His endurance to carry his heavy Cross for me gives me the desire to carry my light and momentary cross for him (Heb. 12:1-3, Luke 9:23).
You Are My Hiding Place
The Father sent the Son into chaos so the Son can send the Spirit into our hearts (John 14:25-27).
Through his Spirit, Christ has chosen my chaotic heart to be the place of his dwelling (Gal. 2:20, Matt. 11:28, Eph. 2:6-7).
So even if chaos dwells in the heart of our cities, the peace of God can rule in the depths of our hearts (Phil. 4:7). It can make us peacemakers who shine like stars in the chaos of any place on earth (Matt. 5:9, Phil. 2:15). For Christ has made his home in us, until he brings us home (Eph. 1:13-14, Jude 24-25).
The grace of God does not condemn my instinct to run. It simply directs my feet and teaches me where to hide (Ps. 32:7, Matt. 6:6). His presence is heavenly and he is my home, wherever I may live.
