.: more isolation and independance :.

Maybe you are just reading the words of a man who desperately wants to become who God desires him to be… and yet longs to return home? Yes, home is definitely a place of comfort. Home is a place where a man has a name and is known by others. I just fear that we have exalted those who have left home at the cost of downplaying those who feel a commitment to their hometown. I agree – all people must leave home at one point in their life. But if someone is able to wrestle with God and find their own identity apart from others in the context of their home, are we justified in our denouncing their decision to stay home? There is something to be said for simply being where the Father leads you, which at a deeper level is ultimately to a place of permission and release and freedom. If someone can enter into that at home, we need to begin to honor that once again.



I am a man who needs others. I openly confess my inability to remain independent for a long length of time. I simply was not built that way… and I am quickly growing tired of hiding that fact from others. At one point, I was dependant upon my parents as a child. But even as a man, I still need family and friends. I need their love. I need their compassion. I need their acceptance. And “yes”… ultimately, I need them in a healthy balance to my call to follow Christ and receive (understand and embrace) my identity from the Father. (Therein lies the heart of the contention between the two positions that I am wrestling with.) How God does that is unique to everyone, apart from all other experiences in others. Just because He has done that for men in third world countries does not mean that it is any less powerful and personal in the midst of their hometown. We are built for real relationships with others, and those very relationships inherently tie us into the context in which they were first built. For me to remain free to leave means that I must be able to say I don’t need them. I simply cannot say that of everyone in my life, for God has placed people in my life beyond just a selfish use of them. And for me to enter into their life in authentic ways means that I must offer some ability to play a healthy role in their life and allow our relational natures to play their own role and create a reliance (though not in replacement of God, but only so far as it works towards greater fellowship with and faith in the Father) between us both.



The bigger issue is where we are at as “whole” people. And if moving away from home can bring a more healthy perspective (help us to see ourselves and God better), I certainly would advocate that. But I feel that we must guard against running away from anything or anyone. We must guard against letting our fears get the best of us and keeping us from the life that God is calling us to live. But God hasn’t called everyone to leave home… and that is His will! Who are we to simply interpret it so as to exalt leaving home as the highest place? For some men leave home to hide in the same way that some stay home to guard against what they fear. The deeper issue is where they are at internally rather than physically. We are all in journey. We are all in process. How dare we interpret one path as being the higher way of sorts!