Psalm 90:1 reads: Lord, you have been our home…
Please understand what I’m saying: It is an extreme privilege to be called as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No amount of frustration or sacrifice could ever balance out the awesome privilege we have of serving Christ.
But sometimes… I’ve got to admit, when Janelle and I think about the challenges in ministry, the main thing that grabs our hearts is that we don’t have any place to call home.
My parents retired to Florida over 20 years ago. My dad passed away 10 years ago, and my mom’s condo is nice, but it’s not home. My brother and sister moved away from Erie, PA – our home town and now my brother lives across the river from Cincinnati in Kentucky. Dave and his wife Mary have a beautiful home, and we enjoy visiting (rarely, I’ll grant you) but it’s not our home. Judy, my sister, lives in Lakeland, FL with her husband Al. We also enjoy visiting in their home, but again, it’s not our home.
Ben (16) and Will (closing in on 13) were born in Nashville, TN, but we moved away from there when Will was only 8 months old. Since then, my kids have lived in Maryland (suburban Washington, D.C.), Georgia and Pennsylvania. They don’t have anywhere that feels like home either.
And I understand it’s not just pastors. Everyone knows we live in an increasingly mobile society. Lots of people are feeling the lack of roots that comes from living here today and somewhere else tomorrow.
My wife’s family still lives in the Kansas City area. She has her mom, a brother and two sisters, their spouses, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles and cousins all within the metro area. If I were pushed, I guess I’d say that Kansas City feels more like home to us than anywhere else. But we left Kansas City in December of 1983. I wasn’t even a pastor then, but the move was necessary to procure a promotion in my paramedic career at Medevac Emergency Medical Services. That wasn’t bad, only 70 miles west of KC. Little did we know we’d never live that close again.
Right now, we love our place in rural Pennsylvania. We could get real used to this. But we know God is preparing a place for us, and he’s preparing us for that place, too.
That’s why we take comfort in this passage: Lord, you have been our home since the beginning. Before the mountains were born and before you created the earth and the world, you are God. You have always been, and you wil always be (Psalm 90:1,2 - NCV).
In an increasingly rootless society, no matter where we live, we can put our roots down deep into Christ. Come what may, he is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). How much stability can we have if our stability is dependent on location, career, or people? Everything changes; everything that is, except for God. That’s why God is our home.
Tell me your tales of living in a rootless society.
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