SHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT: This Land is Your Land

by Charles Costa

This morning, I woke up humming (not sure what brought it to mind) “This land is your land, and this land is my land, from California to the New York island, from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters, this land was made for you and me.”

“This Land Is Your Land” is a song by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. One of the United States’ most famous folk songs, its lyrics were written in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Its melody is based on a Carter Family tune, “When the World’s on Fire.” When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing “God Bless America” on the radio in the late 1930s, he sarcastically called his song “God Blessed America for Me” before renaming it “This Land Is Your Land.”

Patriots sing it on the Fourth of July and other national occasions. They bellow, “This land is your land, and this land is my land…” But this question comes to mind: “Is it?” How does that affect my outlook and relationship to my country, especially when I read the following in Scripture? “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country… for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God… confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth… But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country…” (Heb. 11:9-16 NKJV).Even more, how do these words affect my outlook on life, work and ministry? I wondered if I could honestly and objectively answer these questions. Am I too attached to things on this earth? If not, how does that shape my interactions with the ligaments that tie me to this earth?

C.T. Studd, a missionary to China in the late 1800s after being a famous cricketeer in England, was confronted by this question in 1884, after his brother, George, was taken seriously ill, “What is all the fame and flattery worth... when a man comes to face eternity?” He had to admit that since his conversion six years earlier, he had been in “an unhappy backslidden state.” As a result of the experience, he said, “I knew cricket would not last, honor would not last and nothing in this world would last, but it was worthwhile living for the world to come.” Studd emphasized the life of faith, believing God would provide for a Christian’s needs. When his father died while he was in China, he gave away his inheritance of £29,000, specifying £5,000 to be used for the Moody Bible Institute, £5,000 for George Müller mission work and his orphans, £5,000 for George Holland’s work with England’s poor in Whitechapel and £5,000 to Commissioner Booth Tucker for the Salvation Army in India.

One of his famous quotes was, “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell.” If we are to live for the world to come, how does that affect our life’s agenda — everyday life’s agenda?

Looking at life as it happens around us, living for the world to come must affect our priorities. If I am to count everything as “dung” to win the world Christ, I must reconsider my priorities. Personal priorities do influence my ministry priorities. Time, effort, money, possessions and other factors of life must have well-considered priorities if I am to live with Heaven on my mind.

If I put the shoe on the other foot, I am earthbound. “Now if anyone builds on this foundation with… wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is” (I Cor. 3:12-13). In other words, poof and it’s gone. Beware investing in the terrestrial. Your heart and mind will be where your treasure is. Then the harvest will be earthly, and everything will go up in smoke.

On the other hand, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matt. 6:20). No external factors can destroy your labor for God, and no one can steal your credit and crowns before His eyes.

As laborers in the Lord’s work, we need to be other-worldly, so let’s figure out from the Word of God how that translates practically in our priorities, lives, finances and ministries. When I put the shoe on the other foot, the end is not promising at all. Think about this for a moment: “What will you say to the Lord when you stand before Him?” My answer is ready: “This land is not my land, this earth is not my home, because ‘I gotta home in gloryland that outshines the sun, way beyond the blue.’” My treasure is laid up there.