Where am I?

Recently I woke up and had a strange feeling and I thought to myself, “Where am I”? As I looked around our house and outside it felt like my mind was playing tricks on me. “What am I doing here, this is NOT my home”. You see, a year ago our family was pulling out of the drive way from our home in Texas and headed toward a new place; a place where God had called us. A year ago, everything was familiar and comfortable. We had our families with us, our jobs, our long time friends, we had a church home that we loved, and we had ministries that we were so fond of. Everything was nice and comfortable until the day God called us to a new place.

After my husband graduated seminary we began an unexpected long and painful process of interviewing and trying to discover where God would have us serve in ministry. We waited an entire year for God to show us where to go. One of the things that we made sure that we did in our process of seeking out our place of ministry was to not limit God on where he wanted to take us. We told the Lord that we would go anywhere that he called us. We imagined ourselves in many different cities and states and even possibly for God to keep us in an area close to family. However, when we got word from the LORD that we were moving to Alabama, I was speechless.

We had interviewed in many different states but in all my thinking and dreaming about where the Lord would place us, there were two places that I never imagined God would call us to. The first place was Africa and the second was Alabama. I don’t know why, I just never saw us being at either of those locations. But, this is usually the way God works isn’t it? He always does the thing that we least expect and He sure through me for a loop on this one.

So here we are a year later, in the place where God asked us to serve. We picked up everything in Texas and moved our family far away from the place we called home for so many years. We were leaving a place of comfort and familiarity and walking out in faith and allowing God to take us somewhere new. I often think about Abram and how he must have felt when God called him to leave everything behind to follow Him to a place he did not know. The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. (Genesis 12:1) We really love Alabama, our new home, friends and church family. God has blessed us more than we ever imagined being in this new place. But, we are still getting settled and used to the area and all the new things that come upon us. It has felt a little foreign getting adjusted to a new home and driving these different roads each day. There is still that strange feeling and something that still stirs my heart telling me that I am longing for my real home.

Where is my real home? Is it Texas? I’ll always be a true Texas girl at heart, but I believe my longing is for a place of a fairer kind. Just like the writer of Hebrews describes Abraham, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Heb 11:8-10) My real home is with my Heavenly Father in the place that I will spend eternity.

So, why am I telling you all of this? God may not be calling you to a new city or state. You may sit right where you are at for many years to come, but one thing we must learn is that we should never get too comfortable or wrapped up in the things of this world. We should be constantly asking ourselves….Where am I? And what am I doing here? We need to be reminded that this is not our permanent home. “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,”- (Philippians 3:20) It is so easy to allow things to get so familiar to us that we forget our purpose and our calling. If we get too comfortable and settled into this world we will miss all that God has in store for us. We need to be constantly seeking Him and asking where it is He wants us to go or serve. God wants to grow and stretch us and take us to places of faith that we never imagined. Things may be a bit unsettling in our walk with the Lord here on earth. But remember this is not our home, we are only here temporarily.