Home (Lent #37)

Talk of church often focuses on a physical place, a time or activity.  This is church as a destination or as something we do.  But, the most compelling understanding of church for me is church as a people.

Not something we do, but something we are.  (Isn’t this the position of Rethink Church whose crazy challenge sparked this Lenten series?)

I wonder if we can think the same way about home?

Initially I think of a place, an address, a physical structure.

Home is where my bed is.  It’s the place where my stuff is stored.  It’s walls and appliances and furniture.  It’s the part of this great earth I have placed some claim on.

Could home be more?  Like church, could home be more about people than place?

Could home be people loving one another?  Children reminding parents to laugh and play.  Parents instilling confidence and strength in their children.  Friends sharing meals.  Neighbors looking out for each other.  Could home be the word we use to describe open, honest, loving relationships?

This is “doing”, but could it also be “being”?

We become people of love as we practice love.  We become people of hope as we dream together.  We become encouragers and protectors and re-builders as we do these things together.

Our action begins to shape our characters.  Home becomes less about a physical reality and more about the interconnectedness of those who choose to be in relationship.

It could be this is what folks try to get at by making the distinction between a house and a home.

So easy to confuse the two in my experience.  So easy to place more value in the appearance of the lawn or the siding or the deck, than to attend to relationships.  After all if you have a bald spot in your lawn, there’s some specific things you can do to repair the problem.  A “bald spot” in a relationship?  Sometimes/most times that’s not an easy fix.

But if “home is where the heart is” is there more important work to be done?

Life is better together,
Shawn