I grew up in one home. I mean, my family literally never moved after I was born. We didn’t travel a whole lot—at least not far. The furthest I traveled with my family was only a few states over. I commuted to university too, so from birth to about 21 years old, I was only really familiar with one place. Home was very easily defined for me. Of course, God directed my life such that I am now in the Middle East—not my plan, see testimony in another blog post—but I say all that to mean that I had a pretty comfortable and stable understanding of what home meant.
Upon arriving in my ministry country, my wife and I stayed with our team leader and then in an AirBnB for a week. We continually reflected on the fact that we felt unsettled and unable to rest. Then, just a few days ago, we signed on an apartment and have begun to live in it (praise the Lord!). Yet, even then it still felt like somebody else’s home that I had just paid to live in. We signed the papers—officially and legally making us the owners of our apartment for 1 year—yet I still didn’t feel like I belonged.
Right now, I do feel like I belong in my apartment. How did I get there? It wasn’t sleeping peacefully in the same bed as my wife. It wasn’t waking up and having my usual morning bowl of cereal. It wasn’t doing my morning devotional on my new couch or at my new table. Nothing profound happened to make me feel at home in this apartment. The solution? Simply cleaning the apartment. This one task made me feel radically more comfortable and at peace with our new home.
No doubt, a lot of prayer and thought and buildup came before we moved into our apartment—we’ve been planning to come here for more than a year now! Yet, it was something as simple as cleaning up that really made me feel at ease (though I’m not proposing this as a guaranteed method of making you feel at home in another country).
I know very little about moving. I perhaps even know very little about home. What I do know? I’m glad that I am following where God is leading and that I can rest assured in His promises. I can be glad wherever I am, because I know the secret to being content in all circumstances.