(original message sent via email 9/23/23)
While we were away on vacation this summer in Nova Scotia we had stopped off at this restaurant to pick up some food for dinner. While we were waiting for the food to be ready, we sat in the bar area and listened to a local musician who was playing. As he strummed his guitar and shared stories through the lyrics, I felt like I was at a session at a pub in Ireland. After one of the songs he took a small break and came over to say hello. As we were talking I asked him questions including how long he had been playing, and if he was from Nova Scotia? He shared that he had been a musician for over 20 years and had traveled to many to many places and had recently moved back home to Nova Scotia, where he grew up. As we walked away from our conversation with him, I was thinking about how he started his life in Nova Scotia but he journeyed away, and after having many adventures he realized that he wanted to be back home in Nova Scotia.
Reflecting on this, made me think of my own journey, not one of moving around as I still live in my hometown, but my journey of faith. I was raised in a family of faith. We went to church on Sundays and we said our prayers before bed at night. Yet once I left home I really didn’t think about God or lean into my faith much. I do remember when Stephen went off to boot camp I found myself going back to church as there was something comforting about being there for me. But my attendance at church didn’t last long. I was on a journey in life and it wasn’t until 2009 that I truly started thinking about going back to my roots and explore my relationship with God.
It makes me think about how so many of us were raised going to church who journeyed away. Or maybe maybe you weren’t raised in church and God has never been a part of your life and now you are curious. Either way, we are all on this journey in life, yet often we don’t think about where we are headed. My walk with cancer was a time where I realized I was heading somewhere, and there was no place I wanted to be more than to be home with God on this journey.
Psalm 90:1 reads, “Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!”
No matter where you are on your faith journey, my prayer over you, and me, is that our steps continue to lead us home - to the one who truly knows us, who loves us as we are - God.
I think depending upon how we were raised in church, we might think we have to be a certain way to be seen and loved by God but on my own journey to live from the inside out, I have learned that God sees me as I am, loves me as I am, and welcomes me as I am. I don’t need to be a tidy, perfect package. And the same is true for you!
So wherever you are on your faith journey, I invite you to join me to…
pause. breathe. pray.™
Like the musician in Nova Scotia, may we recognize it may take a journey away before we find our way back home to God. Let’s pray that no matter where we are in our faith journey, this week we choose to take one step of faith towards God, even if that step is asking God, if He even exists. And may we also remember, we all have loved ones who have their own journey. For those of us who are walking with God, may we choose to love and never judge where others are on their journey back home. Instead may we ask ourselves if we are being stumbling blocks for others to know God, or a bridge for them to get to know God. Whatever the answer is, this week may we purposefully meet others wherever they are with love, patience and compassion, walking beside them on their journey back home, just like God does for us.
For more encouragement, click HERE for this week's FREE printable, and click HERE for listen to this message on this week's Live from the Inside Out™ podcast.
With love and hope,
Shawn
Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!
- Psalm 90:1