Home is where the Heart is

Good Morning!

Thanks to all who took the time to read my last blog entry and to give me wonderful feedback on how to improve it. Since this is really my first venture into pursuing this, I can honestly use all the help I can get!

I know many of you know me and have been walking with me for a while now, but for others - you might not actually have ever heard of me or met me. So in order to change that, I am going to start out telling you bits and pieces about me, things that really make out a big part of my personality.
Ready? Okay, let's go!

This picture here was taken this morning. It's the space I like to use for writing, for studying the bible in the mornings, for reading, listening to music, painting and for playing my guitar. It's a bit a one size fits all kinda space, if you know what I mean!
But you have to agree - it is quiet ideal! Once I took the picture, I started to ponder what caption to put with it; and almost immediately one of my favorite ones came to my mind.

"Home is where the Heart is" - by Pliny the Elder

(A Roman that lived around Jesus times and who was an author... I discovered this researching it a bit... Don't you just love Google?)

This phrase has been one of the chiefest ones I learned and that has been so true in my life, once I became a missionary with Friend Ships Unlimited, in Louisiana. I had been saved in 2008, shortly after moving from Switzerland to Georgia. A short two years later, I was called to Louisiana. It was one of those instances, where God moved me in a blink of an Eye. In less than two weeks, I had applied to the organization, gotten all my supplies, a bus ticket to a place I had never been, full of people I'd never met and left my cozy life at Chick-fil-A and all my bible study groups and family to follow God.
If I tell you I was less than prepared and super ignorant about it, believe me! I thought I was something of a superhero to the Christian Faith... The one all had been anxiously awaiting and that I knew way more than anybody else. Apparently nobody had faith in quiet the same manner as me and I was going to change the world!

And then reality set in quiet quickly. I think two days or so after arriving there, I started to see how small my faith was under pressure! It was very humbling to say the least.

Even though the four years I spent in Louisiana were some of the most hardest, with the most trials and most monotonous, they were also chiefest in shaping me to become who I am today. My strong faith rooted in God's word and the ability to trust in His provision, came from there, and also my trust that God elevates those He seeks to advance and that it is not my business to scheme and grapple for positions.  God will allow me to advance when He sees that the time has come. (And with this Ladies and Gentlemen comes a lot of peace!)

At first I felt oddly misplaced. It was uncomfortable and prickly and not at all like home. I had a hard time connecting to people - because the whole time I was also trying to protect myself from being hurt.
But with time I relented control. I settled into the uncomfortable and it became home. Even when we were out in the field, answering to disasters and I had only a small area and a backpack, it became home.

After a while of experiencing all this moving about and not feeling misplaced I started to wonder why that was? And I realized that I did not feel misplaced, because I was with the People I came to love and care for. Everywhere I went, the Sea Hawks (the name of the group of disaster relief missionaries I was a part of) were with me. Everywhere I went, I made new friends and started to care deeply about them too.

I still have so many friends in those areas that I try to stay in touch with. My heart is with so many people around the world - from Honduras to South Africa, to Texas and Louisiana, and all the many places my friends now live, that I could settle down anywhere and it would be home.

Everywhere we go - God is already there. This is another reason, why Home is everywhere. Because my heart lies with God. In John 14:20 Jesus said: " In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." Stay with me for a moment... So imagine this: Jesus is in the Father (Zip open the Fathers chest and put Jesus in it... Zip it back up). We are in Jesus (Zip open the Father's chest, zip open Jesus' chest and crawl in it... And then zip Jesus and the Father back up). And I (Jesus) in us (Zip open the Father's chest, Jesus' chest and our chests and let Him now crawl inside us and zip us all back up... Us, Jesus and the Father). BOOOOM. Mind blown. Have you ever even tried to make sense of this before?

And then there is another home. THE home. The eternal dwelling Jesus has prepared for us to go to when we die. At least for those who belong to Him. Those who have accepted his wonderful gift and call Him Lord and Savior. The home where nothing ever is corrupted, broken, hurt or tearful. Where light reigns and darkness has no place. Where loneliness is a shadow from a past existence and we enjoy perfect fellowship with the Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit and also all those saints around us.
And that is where my heart truly is.

If this is something you would like to know more about - if you don't have a relationship with Jesus or you aren't sure about it, let me know! I would love to listen to your story and hear out your questions and reasons for not surrendering to Jesus.

Thanks for stopping in and pondering "Home is where the Heart is".

-Do you have a favorite spot in your home? Where is it and what do you do there?

-Are you like me, thinking about Pliny the Elder and wondering if he ever met Paul or heard of him? Or if he became a follower of Jesus? Fascinating!