Home

As I have written before we have only lived in Colorado for a few months now.  So I was recently asked if it feels like home now.  Home is such a dedicated feeling.  It describes where you consider your roots to be planted.  Where you find comfort. 

I don't view comfort like most people view it.  Comfort to me is in the challenges in life because in the challenges lies my Savior, my Redeemer.

What is home?  According to the dictionary it is your permanent residence.  If I base my answer on if it feels like home here in Colorado I would have to say no as I would any place you could name in the world.  That being said Colorado is my favorite state in the United States and one of my favorite places in the world. There are many beautiful places to live here on earth but our surroundings can be deceiving.   Take a tropical island for instance.  You may be surrounded by what society calls perfection (beaches, warm weather, mountains).  What happens if you strip away your physical environment?  What is left? 

Now you may think I am over analyzing the subject of home and perhaps I am but I believe everyone longs to have a place to call home.  I have never found a place on earth (including my hometown) where I feel yes this is my home. 

Heaven is my true home and that is the place my soul longs for.  I am glad I feel the way I do.  I have certain roots planted here on earth but I never want to get so comfortable that I feel that this is my permanent residence.  Nothing on earth is permanent.  My life experiences have proved that.  My heart is focused on my heavenly Father and where He resides in Heaven is the place I consider my home.

"When they want to convince you that earth is your home, notice how they set about it.  They begin by trying to persuade you that earth can be made into heaven, thus giving a sop to your sense of exile in earth as it is. Next, they tell you that this fortunate event is

still a good way off in the future, thus giving a sop to your knowledge that the

fatherland is not here and now. Finally, lest your longing for the transtemporal should awake and spoil the whole affair, they use any rhetoric that comes to hand to keep out of your mind the recollection that even if all the happiness they promised

could come to man on earth, yet still each generation would lose it by death, including the last generation of all, and the whole story would be nothing, not even a story, for ever and ever." 

-The Weight of Glory (C.S. Lewis)

The Desire to Belong

As I read "The Inner Ring" a speech by C.S. Lewis I felt a kindred spirit with one of my favorite authors.  He touched on a major desire planted in all our hearts.  That desire is to feel like we belong.  I've been meditating on this subject for quite some time.  I have noticed how often people want to make connections with others.  I see it a lot with my job as we are in the business of helping others.  At times I talk to people that just want to tell you their story.  They just want to feel like someone cares about what they are dealing with.  It is with this deep desire to feel like we are "in the know".  As Lewis points out it is good to feel that you are "in the know" as it builds fellowship and connections with our fellow brothers and sisters.  We were created for relationship. 

I've lived in Colorado now for two months which has been a radical change from the tropical island we were on.  From a lush tropical landscape to a high desert climate.  I can imagine Adam and Eve felt the same as they walked out of the Garden of Eden.  They walked away from what they knew into unknown dangers and obstacles.

I have moved a lot throughout my life because I love change.  I don't like to get comfortable and laxidasical.  I love change because it always presents new challenges for me to be better.  Because of my desire for change I haven't felt really tied or close to a community in a long time.  For the first time in a long time it is nice to see people I know in the grocery store and for them to remember my name.  I value that sense of belonging.  Especially as I get older it is becoming more important.  My heart burns for that desire to be fulfilled. 

Our society has been engrossed with the idea that because you have been to places so radically different from where you grew up, that somehow equals success.  As I'm sure we have all heard someone say, "Wow he/she is really going places".  Where is the value in going to these places?  Is it to pride ourselves on tropical islands or obscure cultures?  Somehow the unfamiliar has become a pursuit.  That being said I like to experience the unfamiliar but I think we have to look at our motive for this pursuit.

"Is it for His glory or for yours"?