Nov. 19, 2014

Away.

That word has been on my mind lately.  Over the past five days, I have been away.  I have been away at Convention.  I have been away for the funeral of Joelene's grandmother.  I have been away for a meeting in Cottage Grove.  I have been away.

Sometimes being away is a good experience.  The time Joelene and I spent in Prague was that way.  Sometimes being away is less than good but necessary.  I have known several people who have had to make emergency trips to be with a dying family member.

Regardless of whether being away is a very good thing, a necessary thing or an unpleasant thing, being away always takes one out of their routine and rhythms.  Eating habits get changed, both in time and substance.  Exercise routines may get adjusted or, more likely, ignored.  Sleep patterns are changed.  Worship and prayer practices also tend to fall by the wayside.

But if we are away, then there is a place we are not.  And the place we are not is the place in which we are anchored, the place where we are rooted, the place we call home.  When I am away, I am not home.  When I am away, I know that home is waiting for me.  My routines and rhythms are waiting to be taken up again.  I can eat normally (whatever that means).  I can follow my exercise routine.  I can sleep soundly in my own bed, never confused as to whether the bathroom door swings left or right.  The Daily Offices fit into that routine, as do Sunday and Wednesday worship services.

That connectedness, those routines and rhythms are really what makes home Home.

And I began to wonder . . . Is prayer and worship time spent away?  Or can prayer and worship be home – the place where we are connected, the place where the routines and rhythms inform and shape our lives?

How might we live differently if we saw evangelism, worship, prayer, stewardship and God not as taking place away from our regular weekday lives, but if we saw those things as part of being home?

Over the past five days, I have been away.  It's good to be home.

Amen.