.:Home
"I'm heading home
Yeah, but I'm not so sure
that home is a place
you can still get to by train"
~"Southbound Train", Jon Foreman
As my family comes together at my house tomorrow for Thanksgiving, I rethink the concept of home... what it means... what it should mean... and the gap between the two.
Home has many meanings for me... I have a house that I come back to when I leave from work everyday. Home is any place where I feel welcome... where I belong... where I'm supposed to be. But the funny thing is that those three definitions definitely can apply to different and separate places.
There are many places where I feel welcomed. I often refer to them as a 'home away from home.' So, home is now further defined recursively through one of my own definitions for it. Where I belong is not something I feel I determine... there are so many choices in life, and it can be difficult to ascertain where my compass is supposed to point... and sometimes it is hard to tell if where I've traveled to is where I belong until I've reached my destination. So, home in this sense is elusive, and only places the worth of its meaning once the settling has been done.
Lastly... where I'm supposed to be is another difficult thing to figure out. Or is it? Well, yes and no. We must define 'where'... Is where a physical place? A mental state? Both? I was created to be with God... and so being with Him could mean heaven... or it could mean being with Him here on earth. Well, home is where I am supposed to be... and I'm supposed to be with God, the one who created me and has plans for me.
So, in a meandering post relegated to defining home... I turn the spyglass upon myself. If home means being with God, and I spend less than a few minutes daily speaking with Him when it comes to eating a meal or habitually kneeling before I go to bed... and languishing for up to several weeks before I look for what He has to say in His word... I'd say that I am not as close to God as I should be for someone who professes Him to be the reason they live.
I am a long way from home.
And as Mr. Foreman lyrically put it in his new song "Southbound Train," home isn't a place I can get to by train. I am just thankful that I've at least noticed I'm off the path.
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and I hope you all think about what home means to you.
vcD,
-R