Liminality

Transition chaos. Messy middle. Liminality. These are all words describe our current place in life.  We are roughly 10 days from moving across the world, to a different country and culture and language and way of life.  It is frightening, yet engaging. We have grief and joy. There are some knowns, and many unknowns.  We are living in a liminal space.

A liminal space is the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next.’ It is a place of transition, waiting, and not knowing.  (https://inaliminalspace.org/about-us/what-is-a-liminal-space/)

In many ways, our current experience is a microcosm of the broader life of a Christian.  We are called to live in the world yet not of the world. Our citizenship is with the Father and sealed in heaven yet our current residence is here on earth.

Please join us in living this paradox, of spending our lives living fully now while also living in light of what is to come.

rethinking "home"

As human beings, we share a deep longing for "place", specifically a place we call "home."  As Americans, we have taken this to another level: the average size of our houses has nearly doubled - doubled! - over the last 50 years.

It seems likely that we have confused "house" and "home". It also seems likely that we, as followers of Jesus, have confused our heavenly home and our earthly residence.  1 Peter 2.11 calls us sojourners and exiles.  Hebrews 11.13 also speaks of strangers and exiles.  Philippians 3.20 reminds us of our true citizenship.

As we conclude our wonderful time here at MTI, one striking similarities of nearly all attendees is the sale of their house. And beyond this, all of the attendees share the experience of leaving their home.

This is hard stuff. We all are reeling, all a bit out of place, yet sharing in this experience and calling together. Yet we all are pursuing this calling for the sake of the Gospel, and in this we rejoice.  There is considerable stress, there is the unknown, yet we know the One who calls.

As I've shared with brothers here at MTI, lyrics from a few older songs have flooded back into my mind. Rich Mullins sang You Did Not Have A Home:

Oh You did not have a home
There were places You visited frequently
You took off Your shoes and scratched Your feet
'Cause you knew that the whole world belongs to the meek
But You did not have a home
No You did not have a home
...
And You rode and ass' foal
They spread their coats and cut down palms
For You and Your donkey to walk upon
But the world won't find what it thinks it wants
On the back of an ass' foal
So I guess You had to get sold
'Cause the world can't stand what it can't own
And it can't own You
'Cause You did not have a home

The world can't stand what it can't own, and it can't own You 'cause You did not have a home. Do you see it? As we buy bigger houses ("homes"), it takes more money to buy, more money to insure, more money to upkeep, more money to fill, more time to maintain, more more more ...  Is this what our culture has done and is doing to us?  This has been a challenge to me.

What a sweet pleasure it is to invest time and live life with brothers and sisters who have intentionally, with pain yet persistence, leaned into the direction He is calling each of us!

One other lyric which has flowed through my mind the past few days is from Michael Cards' Things We Leave Behind:

We show a love for the world in our lives
by worshipping goods we posess
Jesus has laid all our treasures aside
"love God above all the rest"
'Cause when we say 'no'
to the things of the world
we open our hearts
to the love of the Lord and
its hard to imagine
the freedom we find
from the things we leave behind

I thank the Lord today for the freedom we are finding, hard though it is, from the things (the things) we are leaving behind.

For information on house sizes, see:
https://www.newser.com/story/225645/average-size-of-us-homes-decade-by-decade.html
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/05/25/the-size-of-a-home-the-year-you-were-born

Taste and see

As we continue to work through the many logistics of this life change, from houses to jobs to cultures, I have camped in this passage by the Psalmist.  May this encourage you. May you seek, taste, see, take refuge in, and know God today.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

- Psalm 34:8–10 (ESV)

the battle for souls

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood (or against the powers that be in the sale of our home). As obstacles big and small come, I am recognizing more and more that this is a spiritual battle against the gates of hell and the powers of darkness in BiH.  Paul commands me in Ephesians 6:14 to "stand firm, having fastened on the belt of truth." Jesus is the Truth, and I cling to him and to the truth found in Psalm 56, "This I know, that God is for me...in God I trust, I shall not be afraid."

We take the "gospel of peace" (Eph. 6:15) to BiH, so Lord, use this time of uncertainty to grow us, build us, and prepare us to proclaim the mystery of the gospel to a people desperate for you. The battle belongs to the Lord. (2 Chronicles 20)