I’ve “moved” (relocated might be a better word) about 10 times since August, and that has easily been the most difficult and stressful part of the season that I’m in; relying on the generosity of people/couples with a spare bedroom (even a couch or inflatable mattress on occasion) willing to host a missionary woman for a few weeks or a few months.
I know extremely clearly, however, that God is using my continual relocation as a way to break things off of me (namely a desire for roots or stability, which clearly doesn’t fit my career path) and further test my faith and trust in Him.
I, like most people, like comfort and the comfort of familiarity. While there can be excitement in the newness and freshness of change, there is also awkwardness and a lack of comfort, particularly when you’re staying with someone you don’t know (especially for a socially awkward introvert like myself). But God is teaching me an extremely valuable lesson: to find my comfort, roots, and stability in Him alone.
One of my favorite writings of CS Lewis–if I could possibly choose–is this:
The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God… Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.
Sometimes I feel like there is so much to be done during my time on Earth, and, therefore, it becomes very easy to treat this world as my home. But by removing the comfort and stability of a consistent place to sleep and shower, He draws my eyes back to the greater picture, back to Him, back to Heaven as my home.
I just finished studying Genesis 12, and my studies pointed to how Abraham (then Abram) experienced the same as what I’m going through. In the end of Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 alone, he moved at least four times, and then he reached Egypt. Now Egypt was comfortable. There was a famine elsewhere in the land, but Egypt had plenty of provision. Abram was treated like a prince and even given lots of animals and servants; he was living the good life. But God, in His mercy, caused Abram to get caught in a lie to get kicked out of Egypt.
One of the commentaries I read states:
Had God not interfered, Abram might have been tempted to stay in Egypt and forget the promise. Often still does God rebuke His people and remind them…that this world is not their rest.
Another says:
The life of faith must never stand still, for if your feet are going, your faith is growing. Comfortable Christianity is opposite from the life of faith, for “pilgrims and strangers” must face new circumstances if they are to gain new insights about themselves and their Lord.
This world is not my rest or comfort. This world is not my provision. I am thankful to have a God that will never cease to remind me of that and to grow my faith.
Home is defined as a dwelling place, shelter, or refuge. And He is all of those things.
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
-Psalm 91:1-2“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” – 2 Corinthians 5:1
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