Going Back

Last week...

I went back to the church we left one year ago after serving 15 years there.
I went back to the Sunday school class I taught for 14 years.
I went back to the house we lived in for 15 years. (By the way, if anyone wants to purchase a great home in the country….we have one for you!!)
I loved being with special people there who I miss terribly and love deeply.

I went back to all of these special places…places I loved, lived, worshiped, learned, etc…but I discovered that I did not want to stay.

I wanted to go home. Home to where my husband is. Home to where our church is. Home to where my new Sunday school class that I get to start next week is. Home to the little house the church is letting us live in until ours sells. Home.

There is a difference between going back and going home. How grateful I am that I feel at home where we are. Some of the five moves we have made in our 34 years of married life and ministry have taken a very long time for me to really feel at home. I often longed to go back. Back to familiar faces and places and experiences. What a tragedy.

You see, God wants us to live in the present. Not the past. Not the future. He wants us to be content with where we are now…not want to be where we were....or where we are not. He does not want us to long for the time when the kids are in school. Or yearn for the time when we have children. Or long for the time when the children are out of the house. Or dread the season of life when the children are out of the house. Or long for a new place to live. Or a new church to serve. Or a new job. Or whatever it is that we think will make us content.

We are to be content. Paul says in Philippians 4:11 “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Paul was in prison of all places and He was able to say that he LEARNED contentment! Some of you might feel like you, too, are in a prison of sorts right now....read the entire chapter 4 of Philippians and be encouraged.

We must learn to be content. It does not come naturally. The great Teacher will allow us to find ourselves in situations, circumstances and places where we can long to go back….go anywhere….or be content!

Father, I ask for Your power to enable us to be content in the place You have us. That we would serve You well and bring You much glory.