"No Place I'd Rather Be"
If any of you know me well, you know that I am a huge home-body and I absolutely love being with my family. I am unbelievably thankful to have parents that are also my best friends. As we are moving into the holiday season I cannot wait for time to spend in fellowship with my friends and family.
Life is so busy, especially right now as the semester is drawing to a close and due-dates and exams are quickly approaching. With life screaming to be productive and to constantly be doing more, it feels like there is no time to just rest. That is one of the many reasons that I love spending time at home with my family, because even if just for a short time the demands of busy day-to-day life are silenced and I am free to just enjoy the company of the people I love most. There is something so refreshing about being surrounded by people who just know your heart so well because you are free to live and love just as you are with no pressure to pretend or perform or be somewhere you aren't. I am blessed to have family that loves me just as I am - happy, sad, stressed, hopeful, fearful, joyful, and any other crazy mixture of emotions. When I am with family and friends the weight of expectations is lifted and I feel the peace to be myself. I love the feeling of being free to be right where I am, to slow down the exhausting pace of life and just be.
When I think about being content to live and love where I am I think of many things. One that sticks out in my mind is the song "Set a Fire" by United Pursuit. One part of the song says, "There's no place I'd rather be than here in Your love." I sing this song in worship all the time and I often sing the words without thinking about the meaning behind them.
In life, I so often desire to be somewhere else. So often I get caught up in hoping or dreaming about things to come instead of focusing on how I can live into my current reality. As a student - I look hopefully towards the end of the semester and a break from work, or I long to be at home with the people I love, or I wish to answer the call into radical discipleship, or I long to travel the world, or I long for things to be simple again. As the seasons of life change, I long for a variety of different things and I desire to be a lot of different places, but what I think the line of the song has to mean for me is that my true "home" is something that transcends my physical location.
No matter where I am geographically or the people I am with physically, I have a unique and special invitation - the invitation to abide in God's love. In John 15:9-10 Jesus calls us to abide in His love, just as He abides in the Father's love. We are loved with a passionate and unconditional love that accepts us regardless of our circumstances or our inadequacies. The love of Christ celebrates our unique strengths while empowering us to be made strong in our weaknesses - this is a precious gift that nothing else could ever match. This love, that accepts us as we are, is a model of how we are called to love our neighbors and all of the people in our lives. We are free to abide in the love of fellowship and community because Christ has already called us to abide in His love and make His heart our home. I long to spend this holiday season celebrating the gift of living life together and abiding in a life of love and grace.
Life is so busy, especially right now as the semester is drawing to a close and due-dates and exams are quickly approaching. With life screaming to be productive and to constantly be doing more, it feels like there is no time to just rest. That is one of the many reasons that I love spending time at home with my family, because even if just for a short time the demands of busy day-to-day life are silenced and I am free to just enjoy the company of the people I love most. There is something so refreshing about being surrounded by people who just know your heart so well because you are free to live and love just as you are with no pressure to pretend or perform or be somewhere you aren't. I am blessed to have family that loves me just as I am - happy, sad, stressed, hopeful, fearful, joyful, and any other crazy mixture of emotions. When I am with family and friends the weight of expectations is lifted and I feel the peace to be myself. I love the feeling of being free to be right where I am, to slow down the exhausting pace of life and just be.
When I think about being content to live and love where I am I think of many things. One that sticks out in my mind is the song "Set a Fire" by United Pursuit. One part of the song says, "There's no place I'd rather be than here in Your love." I sing this song in worship all the time and I often sing the words without thinking about the meaning behind them.
In life, I so often desire to be somewhere else. So often I get caught up in hoping or dreaming about things to come instead of focusing on how I can live into my current reality. As a student - I look hopefully towards the end of the semester and a break from work, or I long to be at home with the people I love, or I wish to answer the call into radical discipleship, or I long to travel the world, or I long for things to be simple again. As the seasons of life change, I long for a variety of different things and I desire to be a lot of different places, but what I think the line of the song has to mean for me is that my true "home" is something that transcends my physical location.
No matter where I am geographically or the people I am with physically, I have a unique and special invitation - the invitation to abide in God's love. In John 15:9-10 Jesus calls us to abide in His love, just as He abides in the Father's love. We are loved with a passionate and unconditional love that accepts us regardless of our circumstances or our inadequacies. The love of Christ celebrates our unique strengths while empowering us to be made strong in our weaknesses - this is a precious gift that nothing else could ever match. This love, that accepts us as we are, is a model of how we are called to love our neighbors and all of the people in our lives. We are free to abide in the love of fellowship and community because Christ has already called us to abide in His love and make His heart our home. I long to spend this holiday season celebrating the gift of living life together and abiding in a life of love and grace.
Comments
Post a Comment