My first car was an old VW Fox, a junker whose back bumper was adorned with Christian bumperstickers and a custom license plate that read 2 COR 4:18.

Maybe that’s why my classmates at my tiny Christian high school voted me ​“most spiritual,” a title that even then felt like a backhanded compliment.

2 Corinthians 4:18 reads: ​“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

As a teenager, this concept of ​“fixing our eyes on what is unseen” seemed metaphysical and transcendent and just kind of cool — like a Christian Jedi mind trick. Focusing on the unseen, I thought, makes a person very spiritual (and my classmates clearly agreed).

Now decades later, looking at the passage in context, different things stand out. First, Paul’s instruction to look to ​“an eternal house in heaven” wasn’t an invitation to escape from this life but a means to gain strength for this life.

Keeping in mind our citizenship in heaven allows us to be more fully alive and present citizens of earth.

Meditating on the fact that ​“the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus” naturally leads to inner renewal.

And doesn’t experience bear this out? When we’re worried and distracted and spend our energies trying to secure for ourselves what only God can give, we are depleted day by day. But when we lean into Jesus and meditate on what is true and permanent — by praying honest prayers, by journaling until words of worship flow out, by giving our full attention to someone lonely — we are ​“renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). I’m preaching to myself here!

The word Renovaré is Latin for ​“to renew” and comes from this passage. Helping people find continual renewal in Jesus is why this little non-profit exists. This week’s resources and Tuesday’s webinar explore the history and future of Renovaré — a community of which we consider you a part. Together, we can learn to seek the life Jesus offers. Together we can remind each other of what is true and good. And who knows? Maybe one day we’ll be voted, ​“most likely to love their enemy.” Now that’d be a title worth having.