Hi Accelerate Families!
It’s good to be back home. We had an amazing time in Indonesia at Student Convention – around 450 students, and their associated parents and teachers, all worshipping God and fellowshipping together. Oh, and in the largest Muslim nation in the world!
Every time I travel though, I do appreciate coming home! I’m not originally from Australia (I moved here in 2005), but when I got home from 5 weeks in the UK and US in 2008, I realized that landing in Brisbane felt like coming home… and the next time I visited New Zealand (where I’m from), it was that. I was visiting. Now that I am married with a family, landing in Brisbane, is home, but not fully home yet!
Sometimes my home is a place of peace. Sometimes, it is a little chaotic. But it’s home. After being away for a week, the only thing I want to do shut myself in at home and see no-one but my family for a few days. It’s a place of refuge in the craziness of the world, even if the kids haven’t packed things away, or my shed looks like a tornado swept through. It’s not a big or fancy house, but it’s home.
This got me thinking about Psalm 46. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah”
How often do we treat God’s presence like a holiday destination, or the doctor’s office? A nice place to visit, or the last resort when all our normal remedies don’t work… When in reality, God should be our first ‘port of call’, our strength, our strong tower, our refuge. Imagine what a difference that would make to our lives and our physical homes if spending time in God’s presence was a standard, a point of origin (our 0,0 for the geometry fans)! We would be far more content and gracious, less stressed by the storms around us, less shaken by challenges and trials, and our faith would be constantly being built, rather than challenged.
In John 6, Jesus was preaching some heavy truths to the disciples, and a whole heap of them left. He even said to the 12 (pretty much the only ones left) “Are you leaving too?” Peter replies to Jesus and says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68). When we realize that all we need is in God’s presence, we won’t look for refuge or shelter elsewhere. We should almost develop a ‘homesickness’ for the presence of God!
May you all be blessed, as you both seek relationship with God daily, and create homes that your family finds peace and reset in. May all our homes be a refuge built on God’s presence.
God Bless!
Ps. Karl
