a glimpse towards Sunday 5.22.16

How do you finish this phrase: Home is where ___________________.

You hang your hat? You wake up? The heart is? You are? I’m with you?

After a busy week and Thursday night, we got in late. It was good to be home. Michael’s 8th grade graduation was today. The rains have begun, and we’re finally back home. It’s especially good to be home when it’s raining outside.

Lauren’s home from college. Yea!

Morgan’s on the couch taking a nap. Michael is wafting up guitar riffs from the basement. Sherry is napping upstairs. I sit in my big comfy chair writing while the rain drums on our roof. What’s not to love about home?

But our version of home is a dim reflection of what we truly long for. Without knowing this, we try most anything to create home with anemic, human efforts. Our careers, we think, are great home builders. Furniture, for some, becomes decorative home necessities. Of course, a strong marriage is essential for a good home, right? Enjoying great health increases our chances of a solid home life… or so we are inclined to believe.

What happens when our jobs are downsized? When the furniture wears out or a marriage goes down the drain? Does our semblance of home go with it? When the test results show a fading health, does home fade as well?

See the problem? See the shadows?

We have strong desires for home, and none of our human efforts can fully satisfy. The Germans call it “sehnsucht!”

Our ideas of home are good and strong. But the things often used to build our homes are often dumb idols causing heartbreak to our hopes and dreams.

On Sunday, we’ll be talking about home. Our text is Romans 1:18-25. We’re only in week #2 of our “God In The Shadows” series — but we’re already in the thick of things. This is some wrath of God stuff for Sunday (which we’ll have to figure out). In the end, our strong, over-desires for home can deter our right standing with the only One who alone can bring us home.

We’ll be figuring out some key things come Sunday. In the end, I hope we’ll all walk away encouraged with this thought: “Don’t give up. We’re not home yet.”

PLEASE invite a friend or two. The power of the Gospel will be strong in our CCC house. I’m excited to teach. It’s been a long, hard week. Home is a really good thing for me to grab onto right now. We’re just not there yet.

Blessings My Friends,

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