Life back in the States...

I arrived back in the States about a week ago! I came in a day later than expected. Typical me, I missed my flight out and had to wait till the next day to leave. Daniel thought he was going to get out of having to take a guest to the airport super early ( my original flight was at 1pm, my new flight: 7am-- meaning, we left the house at 4am-- not so much)

So what's it like to be home? Home?? What exactly is that anymore?

My definition of 'home' has been in constant redefining all summer long. In the beginning my home began on Discovery where it was defined as a different place each night in which we moved from campsite to campsite. It quickly changed once again after I left the woods and came back to my stable house right in the middle of the city in Columbia. I came to know it as a place where I had grown up, finding refuge over the weekends when I came home from college. That time didn't last too long. Shortly after arriving in the city, I left again, only this time to another country. My new 'home' was then defined as living in another country with dear friends where I had to learn how to adjust to new customs, people, and languages.

Now I am back here in the States where a new definition is unfolding. Soon I am going to be living with 8 wonderful girls in a Montreat Cottage for one year.

Ahhh... where is the constant? Is change always inevitable? In some things yes, but in the important- no. C.S Lewis says it well and here is what I have come to conclude about 'home' after this summer:

"The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live in. The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and pose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a swim or football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to make them our home."

-The Problem of Pain, C.S Lewis

The Lord is our Home. He is our Constant. He does not change, nor is His home different in other places. "Our citizenship is in Heaven...." I might travel and move all around on this journey, but I will never be encouraged to settle anywhere else than in Himself.