Defining Home

You have already heard me say that I am what I would call a home body. Other people (my family) have given this condition an assortment of names, but for now we will just stick with "home body." To me, this simply means that I have always loved home- defined as my family and the house I grew up in. I remember, as a child how long it took me to even spend the night at a friend's house. I couldn't stand to be away that long. Even going away for a year of college didn't cure me. I had resigned myself to being glued to this place believing that I just couldn't be away.

Then, He took me to Africa. Going to Uganda is 2007 was the hardest and most freeing experience I have ever had because I did it without the company of anyone I really knew. The Lord used that trip to forever change me. When I got home, I found that for the first time in my life I was homesick for another place. That feeling exists and intensifies with every trip back to Africa. It left me wondering how I could long for a place I have known on short occasions the way I long for the home I've always known. There was no denying that God was up to something. When I am in Rwanda now, I feel as though I belong there in a way I don't always even feel at home.

So I had a new dilemma- I was now a girl homesick for two places. I wanted the Lord to help me release my grip on one place, not learn to live between two worlds. That was just the beginning of His teaching journey though. Now I had more questions than ever. If I am going to long for two places, how do I know which one He wants me to be in? Is my view of what I am capable of, even in His strength, dictating my level of obedience? Which place am I going to call home? It was in that last question that He revealed the trouble in my thinking. I have always had a place that I called home and that is where I wanted to be. I was writing my own definition, and it was all wrong. Home is not a geographic place or group of people. Home is JESUS! Grasping this makes all the difference. God can take me anywhere in the world He wants because my true home is in Him. It is not defined by emotional attachments, childhood memories, or new found family across the world. It is resting in Jesus no matter where I am. Whether I am in America, Rwanda, or anywhere else in all the world, I am learning that standing in the center of His will is where I will call home.
Lord, make me completely at home in You!