Faithfulness in Exile

In Philippians 3:20, NIV, Paul writes, "But our citizenship is in heaven." Our life on earth is one of exile, and there are different ways we can live out our life while on the journey home. In his book American Babylon, Richard John Neuhaus describes several, concluding with one that made me think of all the families involved in Classical Christian education.

"Some choose accomodation -- up to a point, praying they will recognize that point when it comes. Some strive to engage and transform the world where they are, hoping to make it less strange, knowing it will always fall pitifully short of the city to which they are called. For yet others, fidelity in exile is the course of subversion and even insurrection. Witness the liberation theologies of our time and all times. Then there are those who deliberately, and often at great sacrifice, choose to create enclaves of fidelity, outposts of the promised Kingdom, islands of Christendom in the absence of Christendom. Thus a dynamic that is at the core of the monastic tradition. Thus a growing number of Christian parents today who, through home schooling and other exertions, strive to make the family a haven from a heartless world. Faithfulness in exile takes many forms."