Heart Tracks - The Longing

     Back in the mid-70's when the so called "counter-culture" rebellion was in full swing, my friends and I, who all lived in a notorious place called the Edinboro Hotel, just off the college campus, would all gather around the TV each week to watch the family oriented program, The Waltons, which featured traditional values, and an emphasis upon home and family.  This group of long haired, beer guzzling, pot and hash smoking, and oftentimes acid dropping group of hippie wannabe's, never wanted to miss this show.  Why?  I think, because it appealed to a longing deep within all of us for "home," a place where we're unconditionally loved, accepted, and feel secure in.

This longing exists in all of us, in fact, we're born with it.  Most seek to find it in this world, but at best, this world can only offer a very temporary imitation, and one that can be taken from us in a moment.  I found this to be so in my own life.  As my marriage collapsed, one of the greatest losses I felt was that of losing my "home."  I had thought that secure, but life taught me, as it will each of us, that the only true security we may have is in Him.
    C.S. Lewis said that if we find within ourselves a longing for something that this world cannot provide, then perhaps we should realize we were made for another world.  This world is temporary.  We were created for eternity, and each of us is born with a heart that longs for eternity, and knows, somehow, that it will never find it here.  Our lives may be filled with "stuff" and they may mask that longing for a while, but when the stuff is lost, and one way or another, all stuff is, the longing remains, and no matter how hard we seek to satisfy that longing in this realm, it can only be satisfied in Christ.

    Moses wrote in the 90th Psalm, Lord, through all the generations, You have been our home.  Moses, once a prince of Egypt, next a shepherd on the backside of the desert, and finally, the one who, as he was led by the Father, himself led the people of Israel through the wilderness, knew that none of those places was truly home, not even the promised land to which they were being led.  Home was in the heart and life of the Father God.  He had always been, He would always be.  Have you come to know that as well?  Or, do you still seek to find your home here in those things which are passing and temporary?
    In the book of Ruth, Naomi and Ruth, the only ones left of their family, a family that had left Judah, their home, to live in Moab.  In Moab, their husbands died, and they were left alone.  1:7 says that they left the place where they had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah.  Perhaps you find yourself living in Moab today.  You're not alone.  We're all born into the citizenship of Moab, but there is a road that leads home, if only you'll, we'll, take it.  That road is found in Christ, who identified Himself as the the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He's the way home.  The only way.  If you've been awakened to that longing within, He bids you come.  If not, know that He will wait upon you, wooing you, calling you home.  Calling you to the home you were made for.  His heart, and His life.

Blessings,
Pastor O