It's good to be "home"

The concept of "home" is turning into a more dynamic concept than I ever could have thought.

I've been doing a lot of travelling the last 2 weeks I've been in the States. I flew in from Quito and almost immediately set out to visit Hillary and Ian in Illinois (thanks Mom and Dad for letting me borrow your car). We had a really great time taking a day trip to Chicago, shopping at half-price bookstores, and just being together. It was good to be with my twin/family and to also see some wonderful friends from college who came to spend the 4th with us. On my way back to WV I stopped by a friend's house to spend time with her and her family and it was good to be together again. After being home for less than 24 hours, I set off for Southern Ohio (where I grew up) to speak at my church the next morning. I spent the night with a friend from high school and her crazy/wonderful family who had just finished cleaning up after their son's wedding. I loved seeing a lot of friends (who are more like family) from growing up. The next morning I spoke at the church I spent most of my life in and after service, caught up with my church family and went to eat Mexican food with friends. On the way back to WV, I called some friends because I was thinking about them, and incidentally they had been thinking about me too so I went over for dinner and didn't get back to the house until 10 that night.

Needless to say, I've been wonderfully busy since coming home. But where is home? Can it be defined by a building? A house or church, a city or state? Home isn't a location or a zip code. Home is where my family is, no matter what state they currently live in. Home is where my friends are, no matter how far apart or close they are. Home is community: a body of believers worshipping and loving with the same Spirit. I do feel at home when I look up and see the WV foothills and when I drive down curvy windy roads, but mostly I feel at home when I am with the people I love.

Thank you, family and friends for the home you have created for me, no matter where you are. You will always be my home. Thank you, Heavenly Father for always being my one true Home, no matter where I go, no matter where I lay my head, you are my eternal Home.

Half-Way

Celebrated my half-birthday a few days ago. Half-way through the school year. Half-way between disillusionment and contentment.



In case you didn't know, living abroad (and, similarly, culture shock) can be categorized into typical stages. The first stage is called the "honeymoon" stage: everything has the illusion of being wonderful, beautiful, perfect. The second stage is "withdrawal" and that's when disillusionment - hand-in-hand with that steadfast companion, Reality - sets in.

Thankfully, I've been here before. I have experienced these feelings before. I know what it measn to work through them, to confront them. No, life isn't perfect, nor is every situation I find myself a part of (not to mention by blogging consistency), but I am living in a beautiful country with beautiful people with a beautiful purpose. And my friends are helping me to know the way. It's a process of surrender.

So I've been reading Mother Teresa lately and for the record, her words are not light reading. If you want to be totally uncomfortable yet comforted and challenged at the same time, you probably should read her book No Greater Love. She speaks of trust and surrender as a radical yet essential part of truly following Christ:

"The path of loving trust means: total reliance on our Heavenly Father with the spontaneous abandonment of little children, totally convinced of our utter nothingness but trusting to the point of rashness with courageous confidence in His fatherly goodness."

"This is total surrender - no to be loved by anybody, not to be wanted by anybody, just to be a nobody because we have given all to Christ."

A promise I'm clinging to when I'm tempted to sway with the desires of others and even self:

1 Thessalonians 2:4 (NLT) "For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts."

There is no half-way to surrender. I cannot please God when I am trying to please people. I cannot please God when I want to be "somebody." Partially relying on God doesn't even partially work. I want to completley abandon myself with courageous confidence like the children I am leading.

Now I know more than I did in the beginning. Now I have an even greater opportunity for extending love and grace into this beautifuly messy community.