Home. Right now the United States sounds as foreign as any country we have been to in the past eleven months. The human mind adapts incredibly quick to any situation and our minds have been conditioned to a life of minimalism and simplistic living. The thought of the hustle and bustle of our former lives seems strange to me and is more than a little bit frightening.
Throughout this year, home and those we love have been a constant companion in the back of our minds. We have been away so long that home has become an escape…an end to whatever uncomfortable situation in which we found ourselves. In our minds, we could return home where there was indoor plumbing, electricity, air conditioning, privacy and a bed. However, home is no longer an ideal that is the end of our current problems. Home is a few days away from being our reality.
I am beyond excited to get home and see all of my loved ones. I will happily sleep in my comfortable bed and will likely splurge on turning the air conditioning to an uneconomical level for a few days to be comfortable under the covers. That being said, a fear recently crept into my mind. Home has been my mental escape when things get hard. Once the wheels touch down in Atlanta, home will become my reality. I am too old to be naive about the fact that home will come with its own set of problems and inconveniences. Soon, life back home will become the new normal and this life of the past eleven months will slip further into the memory vault.
I had a moment this week where I sincerely thought that my grand adventure was over. I was depressed that no longer would the extraordinary be my every day life. I was sad that I was trading village paths for clogged interstates and mud huts for mortgages. I felt a loss that miracles and the very real daily presence of Jesus would become a thing of the past. I will admit that I spent more time than I should have being upset that I was going back to the "real world."
At that moment, God spoke to my heart with a message of hope. Going home is not the end of my great adventure. It is the start! God has shown me his Kingdom around the world so I can share it. The same God that was with me under the stars of Africa, the rice paddies of Asia, the sugar fields of the Caribbean and the streets of Europe will be with me in America. I feel like God has great plans for Hannah and I. There is a truth in my spirit that I will be back across the globe bringing God to the nations through my generation. Now, I am truly excited to go home. First and foremost to see my loved ones, but secondly to begin the next phase of my life that God has prepared for me since the foundations of the world. I don't know what lies ahead, but I believe it will be an incredibly wild ride!
