Home
Where do you feel at home? From college to marriage, I lived in about 10 different places. I’ll never forget my one-bedroom efficiency apartment my junior summer of college. It was noisy, convenient, and flexible. It was the only place in Birmingham that would agree to a 3-month lease. When Kelly and I were married, between seminary and my first pastorate, we lived in about 10 different places. Apartments, house sitting, duplex, you name it. We were a migrant family at best.
We learned very quickly that home was not a roof. Home was the place wherever we were located. We had to turn the rooms where we spent the night into the place we wanted to be.
For most adolescents today, home can be any number of places. Most live under two different roofs simultaneously, with two sets of parents. That’s why the church’s definition of family is so important. Family is not a place that flows through the bloodlines. It’s the group of people united by Jesus Christ. It multiplies through faith and kinship in him. Your community of brothers and sisters in Christ become your family.
No matter where you live, God’s call is the same to wandering Israelites, nervous disciples, and migrant young adults. Wherever Christ’s people are is God’s home. Give yourself to the place God has planted you. Look around, get to know the people, see the roof over your head as the next doorway through the adventure called faith in Jesus Christ. You never know who might be next door who needs to feel right at home.