I’ve now been “homeless” since September…a better word might be “multi-homed”… Since letting my flat go in mid-september, I have now stayed in 10 different homes, lived out of only 3 suitcases (which have now travelled on 12 different flights), and am only halfway through this adventure. But isn’t this sort of the state of our hearts here on earth? Was it Augustine who said that “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God?”
In all of this, I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of home. I thought that I was giving up home and everything I knew in order to move here 2 years ago. After about a year, this place began to feel like home. And now that I am leaving, I feel that loss again…I now know how to live in Glasgow. I have friends who have mutually walked through really hard times together with me. I have been hurt here (which means I have taken risks here, which means I have felt comfortable enough to do so…). I have found friends for whom I would take a bullet.
And I feel as though I’m losing all of that as I head off to a new “home”… but am I? In my 13 years in Orange County I would have said the very same thing…there are people I will never forget and situations I hope to forget, and there is a church that I love and there are people for whom I would sacrifice everything…
So who’s to say this won’t happen in London? And who’s to say that home might not actually be a geographical place so much as a concept to help us understand that place in our souls that longs for connection? In all of these places I have journeyed with people who I will see forever…and we are a part of each other. Jesus said that we will not regret having left all for his sake. He also said that we all together make up his body, his bride…I can’t wait for you all to meet each other…for Jo and Isabel to meet Debbie and Andi, for Mike and Susanne to meet Darrin and Julie, for Jack to meet Keri, for David to meet Gary, and for Myra to meet Marla…you guys…we are all going to celebrate together one day! And who cares how much time we’ve spent together or apart…these bonds we’ve made will continue on into eternity! Woo-stinking-hoo! Wherever we go the Kingdom of God is there, and we are in the Kingdom of God, which is our true home.
So what does this mean for me now? Man, I think I’m just reminded that no matter how long you have in a place it is worth investing in…worth the risk to love…to really love the people you come in contact with…to give yourself…because every person you meet could be with you in eternity…
I don’t know…just thinking out loud…what do you think?
The Long Walk Home 