Home

Trying on a new background...the pink was getting to me. Around this time of year, when winter really starts to set in for the long haul and I know I am looking at another 5 months of cold, I start longing for Pacific Ocean. Funny how I grew up near it but always took it for granted...now I'd kill for just one day to lay in the hot sand and run through the waves. Maybe kill is an overstatement. Anyway, I miss the west coast.
There's nothing wrong with being homesick. It's natural to miss the places we knew and loved for most of our lives. Turning that around to the non-physical type of locations, I realized this week where my walk with Christ has come too. See, with Him, wherever I am, no matter what I am doing, I am home. That's what gives me peace about going to the mission field. I've always known that He's not sending me somewhere by myself...rather,I'm following Him to where He wants me to serve.

This week, I realized that I have not been home in quite a long time. Sure, I'm in my living room, warm and cozy with the fire crackling in the stove nearby, but I've been gone for the longest time. I don't like being this way. It's like when your shoes and socks are soaking wet, when traffic is nasty and everyone on the planet is snarling at each other. You want to be home more than anything in the world. You can stop in some place for a while, grab a cup of coffee, but you know it's not the same thing as being home where you belong.
Pardon the preceding pathetic metaphors, but really, when we as Christians get away from our Savior, we get away from home. We can try other things to distract us for a bit from the misery that comes with not walking with Him, but it doesn't work for very long. I know where I belong, no matter where my physical location might be. I know as long as I am with Him, I'm home. Nothing else compares, and nothing else is worth it.
So back to talking about the mission field...someone recently asked me why I want to go overseas. In my recent "run away from home" retardedness, I really forgot a few things. First, that I am so prone to wandering from Him, it terrifies me.I dread the thought of a life without Him, yet it is that very life that I seem to run to as fast as possible most of the time. Second, that God can use any vessel He wants to fulfill His purpose. He could use a brick if He wanted to. I don't know why He is allowing me to do this, but I am ready to follow His will. If He wants to use me, if He chose me to follow Him, then my home is with Him, wherever that may take me.

Hope this made sense, wrote it in the dead middle of the night on an empty stomach and depleted caffeine stores.
Closing note...tonight I was reading online and saw this article. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/latinamerica/6783415.html
During this season of joy, it's so easy to forget what's going on around us.
In Christ,
Gina