In college I had to take a strengths test for a leadership class. Not to my surprise, two of my top strengths were harmony and consistency. What can I say, I like peace and a smooth path under my feet! But life isn’t always harmonious, one steady state of contentment & happiness, is it?
Maybe in this season in which you reside, very little feels constant or harmonious. You don’t live on the same street as you did when you were ten, the closest friends in your life you haven’t known for more than 5 years, you moved last year and your house feels clunky and unorganized, etc etc etc… So often we magnify and offer glory to the utopian life of steadfastness in the form of small town + family down the street. Or maybe you’re someone that praises the contrast. Adventure! Travel! Change! Both can reflect a home worth cultivating and experiencing. But what if your day to day life doesn’t align with either of these ideals of home exactly? You’re not alone, join me and so many others. Today and most days feel somewhere in the middle - settling into a new season, job, or place (even if it’s going on 3 years), a dash of questioning your decisions, and a whole lot of what we did the day before. We feel as if we’re not living our dream lives filled with purpose and contentment, and we find ourselves chasing a life just out of our grasp - the steady life or the adventurous life.
So what do we do? Do we try to mold our lives, forcing change to reach an ideal that we haven’t grasped yet? Or do we run to the One who molded our first beginnings?
Whatever place we call home in this season,
we must recognize God’s sovereignty and loosen our grip on our ideals and expectation of what home should be.
Because ultimately the Home we yearn for cannot be contained with walls and a roof (1 Kings 8:27).
The Home we yearn for is one that travels with us, regardless of the season of life, physical space we reside in, job we accept, or contentment level we feel. May we take a deep breath and find joy & contentment in the process of traveling home.
“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 23:23–24.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
“‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).” Matthew 1:23
Stay in touch,
Joanna