Like a puppy caught chewing his masters slippers, I enter my site to blog again. I had such good plans to write often. I failed.  So I start again.   Grace empowers to start anew.  Morning by morning new mercies I see. 
      So much has happened since I last wrote. I have accepted a new call to a new church family.  It was a process of self evaluation and praying, thinking and talking with others.  It was a painful decision to leave a church family that I loved and was loved by, and was our home for the last 12 years. The new call fit with my passions and vision for ministry. The Lord seemed to lead.  The church called me. I said yes.  
 Now we are in the process of planting ourselves among the people that God has placed us.  
       One of the things that have struck me in this process is the leaving of our home in Barnesville, was how quickly the place we called home did not feel like home.  When all the things that made our home a home: the furniture, decorations, personal items that belonged to us were gone,  it felt empty, hollow.   There was a profound sadness and sense of loss that came over me. It was kind of like the 12 years of life lived there was somehow gone or lost.  Obviously that was not true.  We have the memories and the pictures, but we can never go back to that house and relive those memories. Having moved a number of times in the last 30 years (11), I have experienced this before. This time was different in that we had lived 12 years in the same house/ town.  I feel bad that my kids will not be able to go back to that house again and experience it with their kids. Like both my wife and I have been able to do with our kids. 
     The feeling of belonging, of home, is an interesting one.  We live in a society that has people moving often. Very, very, few people live in the same home, or community for most of their life. But it is a common question asked of one another.. "where did you grow up?"  "where do you consider home?" I think that longing for a home, that is never quite satisfied,  is indicative of the reality that we are made for another home. It is also true that those people who seem to be the most at home here in this life, are those who have had their soul most gripped by the temporary nature of their address here on this big ball. Those who believe that this world holds the answers to our longing for a home are the least at home. This world can't stand up to that weight. When we see our homes here as temporary - which they are- then they are free to be what they are- places that nomads gather for rest and eating and joy and grace and solitude and gathering, not our permanent home. 
So now we live in a new home. New memories are being made. My two boys will have a hard time remembering our home in Barnesville.  My hope is that this home will be a place of joy and laughter, a place of refuge and peace for them and others to come to. It is a lovely home. But it will one day be moved out of again. It is temporary.  We are made to find our home in God our Father. Our homes will prepare us for that if we let them do their work in our lives.  God is good to give us chances to learn that He is our home.  We will be restless till we find our home in him.