What makes you feel like you’re home? Your bed? Your
kitchen? The old, comfy recliner where you take naps and watch TV? Or is it the
smell?
We’ve been thinking about all these things as we’ve been
moving around all over during this transition time. What we thought was going
to be a short stay at each parents’ houses before we left for India has turned
into sleeping in 7 different beds in 3 months. (Talk about messing up your
sleep cycle).
The word “sojourners” has been bold-printed in mind for the
last few weeks. Officially, this word means “to stay or reside temporarily.”
Our journey to India has led us to be sojourners in our parents’,
grandparents’, and friends’ homes.
I used to think I was really resilient and not superficial
at all (what a good Christian I thought I was), but God started telling me
something different right before our wedding. As Grayson and I were preparing
to get married and made the decision to accept monetary gifts instead of a
typical place settings (etc.) as gifts, believe it or not, I definitely had one
or two good cry sessions. Some girls dream about their dress or their wedding
venue or the honeymoon, but I always looked forward to holding that little
Target gun in my hand and shooting all the neat house items I’d want to
decorate my house with! Phase 1 of God tearing down idols in my heart.
Phase 2 came as we were traveling around visiting with
people. I had read in a book that when one woman traveled with her family she
always had a few homey items like some pictures and some cups that they took
every where they went. When we first
started out moving everywhere, I had my candle, my decorative cloth, and a
picture frame that I had in mind and carried them with us and pulled them out
at every new bedroom.
However, as we traveled (with all our belongings now down to
one car I might add), we gradually let go of more and more things. My (once)
“go-to homey items” soon got ditched, and the bondage of materialism was broken
even more.
I didn’t ask God to break this sin in my life, but as I’ve
been seeking Him more and asking to know Him more, He points out bondage I’m
still in that is keeping me from knowing Him more fully, and in His power, He breaks
strongholds in my life.
Through our transition period as sojourners, the Lord is
teaching me that my home is not here; there is another kingdom I am a part of
and every time I try to live more and more in and dig my roots deeper and
deeper into the kingdom of this world, the farther outside His will I find
myself and the harder it is to be transformed by the renewing of my mind
(Romans 12:1-2).
Though you may not find yourself as stuck in wanting stuff
and finding joy in the things you have, maybe you struggle with another area of
world-living (instead of kingdom-living). Which kingdom does your life reflect
that you’re living in?
We can sometimes tell by the way we treat “stuff” and how
dependent we are on it. We can see it in the use of our time, the stewardship
of our finances, the things we talk about, etc.
Life has been hard always feeling like we don’t have a place
to call our own, our own kitchen to cook meals, our own comfortable bed, but
God, in His graciousness, has given us endurance and strength and made this
time a lot easier than it could be.
We are grateful for the lessons we have learned through it
so far: that eternally, this world is not our final destination, that there is
a kingdom that we can live in now, that we are just in transition, living the
life He has called us to and looking forward to our BETTER and FINAL bed,
kitchen, and recliner.
Let’s not forget it.
(Disclaimer: 1. I think that receiving wedding gifts is a
beautiful time of marriage and family and friends supporting the new couple. 2. Though sojourning has provided lessons learned, I’m totally pumped to have a
home to ourselves where we can fully function in the life God has called us to
live. So promise, there’s no doggin’ from me on people who own homes. 3. I’m
not really one to say whether there’s gonna be recliners in our new heaven and
new earth, but it’d be nice right?)
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