Last December I moved from Nebraska to Tennessee to pursue God’s call on my life to work in the Christian media/music industry.  It was a tough move to leave the place that I’d lived in for 22 years.   

Now, eight months later, I sometimes feel like I’m still settling in.  I don’t always know where I’m going.  I can’t navigate the big city like the back of my hand.  I long for my favorite restaurants from up north.  I miss the familiar faces that I grew up with.   I felt like a foreigner most of the time.  I began to wonder if I’d always feel like that.  Sadly, I felt like a visitor to my birth state, as well.  Things had changed.  People were different.  I feared that I’d always feel like I was in between and that I’d never feel at home anywhere. 

I was feeling the “never at home anywhere” emotion the other day when I was taking the dog out so he could empty his bladder.  As he scrounged around looking for the perfect place to potty, I stared at my surroundings.  The trees, the stream flowing nearby, the apartment complex, the city street.  I had observed those things so many times before, yet they still weren’t familiar.   

Then God brought me to a thought path that I’d never happened upon before.  I realized that I would never feel at home unless I was living in the Kingdom.  That includes living by Kingdom principles and living with Kingdom people and working for the Kingdom goal. My goal as a Christ-follower is to further the Kingdom of Christ.  That’s a simple thing that I understand. But I hadn’t taken it to the next level.  Yes, I need to further the Kingdom.  But I always thought of it as a far off place.  Well, it isn’t. 

Believers are supposed to be one in spirit and purpose.  That means living together in the Kingdom now.  Once people become believers in Jesus, they enter into a life of eternity. It’s such a revelation.  I am in God’s Kingdom right now.  So, wherever I am (as long as I’m living by Kingdom principles) then I am home. 

Instantly, as I fully realized those things, it was like scales fell off my eyes.  The trees, road and apartment complex looked like home.  They became a more vivid, warm color.   

Then a second wonderful thing happened.  In my previous blog, I talked about wanting to be a leader in the founding of something big.  Well, God’s allowing me to do that.  My church is multiplying into a new branch in the town where I live.  I will be a founding member of that new church.  I get to be a part of something big from the beginning.  I’m not too late this time.  I’m not acting selfish this time.  I’m not acting out of pride or selfishness.   And…most awesomely…I am home.  I am where I’m supposed to be and it is the most wonderful thing!