So for those of you who don't know- I'm a huge Rich Mullins fan. not was. am. He may be dead (died the same month as Mother Theresa and Princess Di- I think that's significant), but it's hard for me to think of any Christian who is in heaven as dead... really. What's "dead" about heaven? Are we not going to be with them some day? Plus, this guy wrote about heaven as if he was on a first name basis with it. (and I know I've listened to his music enough to be influenced fairly heavily by it!) "When I leave, I want to go out like Elijah.." who else could have written that?
So lately I've been listening to a little Rich when I steal the Camry and run errands at night. After long days of this child care business, I'm soul hungry and so this is what I hear...
"...and everything You sent to shake me
from my dreams they come to wake me
in the love I find in You
......and I can see the things that really matter
become the wings You send to gather me
to my home........I'm going HOME."
His music is big on Home. Heavenly home- earthly home is in God and God in us.. it's a core place of peace for Rich (now more than ever). HOME IS WHERE GOD IS. and that is so as it should be.
I think that's always been something I crave- roots, home, place. My parents moved a whole 2 miles when I was 18. It would be my first move shortly after graduation. I wigged out. Completely flipped my lid and gave them heaps of grief over the thing. There'd be no home to come to from college. Place has always been important to me. I will call Tennessee home till I die even if I live in Michigan for 60 years. I also crave roots likely because I went so long not knowing mine and then even when I did meet my birth mom- I find out she's from up north too! So much for a Southern heritage of any kind.
So for me- it is crucial to see God as HOME. as my identity. as not only my roots but my present and future... how secure is that?! A place of peace that we carry with us and will be our eternal destination on this journey which is basically to realize Home.
So how do I live like I'm home? quit waiting for the next thing? be content and not afraid of the monotany and struggle of the next few years (like 18 or so?) how do I realize verses like the one someone sent me (very well timed!!) " And let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Galatians 6:9) How do I give that sense of HOME security to my boys, live it for my husband?
Ask me in a few years... maybe I'll be closer to knowing.
