Sense of Home

[This reflection was written on December 22, 2012]

Sally Howell Johnson in Barefoot Zone writes a story about an older woman feeling a call to journey back to her home place on the farm where she grew up near the town of Bountiful. Sally asked, do we have a place that “calls” us to come “home” and where is that place? Is it our birthplace or the country of our ancestry? Is it a certain lake or mountain where we experience God?

Immediately I thought about Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. We travel there often and always feel such a keen connection with God that we are drawn back again and again. The lake and the area represent peace and tranquility – so much of the character of God – that we find true refreshment for time spent there. Over the years we have stayed in many different places along the shore, enjoying some more than others. So it isn’t a structure that calls us to take the five-hour drive. It is the scenery and the ever changing moods of that huge Lake Superior. I find God there.

I thought about my Golden Lake home. We lived here nearly thirty years calling it home and it has been the place we have met God and grown in our faith through the various struggles and pain of life. I will miss this scenery but I can drive back to Golden Lake Park at any time and snap a few photos.

God is calling us to a new home for a fresh start; redeeming our life story and relieving our finances. I am already planning a fortieth anniversary celebration for April/May. Life goes on in a new place with new challenges and opportunities to grow.

My sense of home resides with God. That is why I think I can rent various houses on the North Shore and still feel at home because God is very present to us there. To me there are a lot of memories with this Golden Lake home but they evolve around God and his blessing that we have been able to share with many people over the years. Some friends have expressed great sorrow at the memories this place holds for them. They hate to see us move, while at the same time realizing that it is Jim and Donna that have made this house a home for many, many people. The same will be true for the new place and community.

God will not leave us homeless. He will provide us a place to call home however temporary it may be. Who knows how long God will bless us with 3420 Silver Lane? We will enjoy it and celebrate God’s blessing with many friends far and near along with some new ones.

God will eventually call us home to heaven to live with him forever. Until then we have many wonderful opportunities to experience a little taste of “home” this side of heaven through travel and through celebrations with friends.

 Where do you experience a “Sense of Home"?

Morning Has Broken on Lake Superior

 

Waiting

[This was penned after hearing this Lectio reading at Centering Prayer on December 18, 2013]

"In Advent, we affirm that God comes:  faithfully, surprisingly, assuredly.  God enters as we wait and hope, prepare and anticipate.  God breaks through our silence and enters our darkness, penetrates our hardness --in a Child, through a word with Good News.  Advent calls us to transformed lives, renewed hope, and visions of a future to be restored."  J. Howard Rhy

What an Advent of WAITING this has been for Jim and me. Waiting but still packing in anticipation of a move, to who knows where?

Yesterday we heard that the Elftmann closing had been approved and our file had been transferred to the closer. I’m trying to be excited but with much caution. After this roller-coaster of bumps and wild curves and stalls; it is a little hard to move into full-fledged joyfulness. My prayer of relinquishment is keeping me a little more cautious even as I awoke at three this morning thinking about the new house and how to arrange the remainder of our belongings.

This morning I roamed around the house feeling “lost” amidst the boxes, boxes, boxes everywhere. I had no desk available to set my Bible for some quiet with my God. Do I bother to set up a card table with 8 days remaining? With our Christmas entertaining finished, it feels like nothing. We need to get packing even more earnestly. What little decorations we have up need to come down so they can be packed.

 

Our Advent anticipation is looking for God to show up in our move with a mortgage approval in the face of huge odds. I believe God is FOR US and He will be faithful to full redemption of our story. I anticipate and envision a restored future with many more years to glorify God beginning in a new place.

-          God has indeed been in the darkness of waiting and wandering through listing prep, negotiations and the huge paper shuffle.

-          God has been with us in moments of excitement over finally listing and then over getting rid of more and more stuff.

-          God has prayed for us with groans beyond words when personal prayer became illusive.

-          God has grieved with us for this year of painful turmoil that remains to be healed.

-          God will lead us through healing in His grace and love.

 

 

How have you seen God in your times of waiting?

Was the waiting worth it?

 

Be Content Not to See

Let God do his work.
Let him lead you, as he will.
He needs only your consent.

Be content not to see
and put aside your need to know.

Accept that someone is moving
lovingly within you,
even if you do not yet recognize
that it is God at work.

--The Cloud of Unknowing

Recently, I felt isolated, discouraged and discarded – by my church. I did not understand why things were changing or why I was feeling bewildered. During an experience of Centering Prayer, my focus was drawn to one line in the Lectio reading that day – “Be content not to see”. I felt that God was asking me to find contentment in God instead of needing to know and understand.

As I continued to pray, I kept asking God to transform contentment in me, because I knew I could not do that with my own efforts. On another morning, while praying, I saw my life as a candle that was barely burning, starting to smolder. I sensed Jesus’ presence tending to my flame to help it burn clean and bright once again. I recalled the verse from Isaiah 42:3, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out…” 

How like the gentle Shepherd to come to me at my lowest point. As I studied the Isaiah passage, I was led to other verses of comfort: 

Isaiah 40:11 “…he will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart”

Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds”

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.”

After these messages from God’s word, I no longer felt isolated. God knew my situation and God was with me offering the comfort of His reassuring presence. With hope restored, God will enable my light to shine bright once again.

CHALLENGE

Has life left you weary, burdened and feeling bruised? Find hope in Isaiah’s prophecy of Messiah’s gentleness with the broken. Find help with your weariness by accepting Jesus Christ’s rest.