Travels and Home

I'm back home. After two weeks of luggage and room keys, of boarding passes and boarding calls, of passports and airports, I am sitting at my own breakfast table enjoying the calm of a rare and gentle California rain. Just three weeks ago I was excitedly looking forward to two weeks abroad, enjoying the cote d' azure, the villages of Provence, and Spain's paella. Back then, nothing else mattered. It was as though the trip provided a barrier that kept at bay any cares connected with those oughts and obligations I consciously pushed aside, flinging them forward into the weeks following our return. Three weeks ago, this day - today - with its load of cares, was hidden magnificently behind the anticipated thrills of new places, new foods, and new friends. But now, today is here. And tomorrow is on its way, with a busy weekend right behind to usher in an even more hectic week, and month, and season.

As the rain continues to fall, bringing a certain surreal calm, inside I am intensely aware that the responsibilities and opportunities that fall to me as a husband, father, pastor, professor, friend, neighbor, and citizen can never really be put aside, or put away. And yet, even as part of me stuggles to move from exhaustion to production, who I really am - a man magnificently blessed by God - rejoices in knowing that my life matters, that both my tasks and my challenges are actually opportunities to touch real people, and make a difference in their lives.

The travels were wonderful, filled with both the delights of the expected and the joy of surprise. But home is where I belong, where I fit. Home is where I live out the life for which God, in His loving providence, has crafted me. Home is more than a place, more than a table, more than a backyard being washed by the rain. Home is that sense of surrounding where familiarity combines with acceptance, supplying both the fuel and the freedom necessary to meet today, greet tomorrow, and accomplish all that my Father has given me to do.