Sunday, November 26, 2017
Sunday Reflection: Going Home
Thanksgiving is the biggest travel time of the year, as people shuttle back to the town they came from. When I was little, I remember someone trying to explain why Mary and Joseph were traveling to Bethlehem when Jesus was born. I guess this youth minister did not want to explain what a "census" was to a little kid, so he told me it was like Thanksgiving, when everyone travels to the place where their family comes from. It makes sense to me-- and somehow I still connect Thanksgiving to Mary and Joseph.
There is something deep and meaningful and sometimes scary about that journey. People have often left that place for a reason, good or bad, and traveling back brings back a raft of feelings related to that move away. And the people, of course: family relationships are complicated. There are the inner-circle family members, and those further out, and sometimes they all bring their own complexities.
That journey is worthwhile for many of us (including me).
Is finding or re-finding faith like that journey?
There is something deep and meaningful and sometimes scary about that journey. People have often left that place for a reason, good or bad, and traveling back brings back a raft of feelings related to that move away. And the people, of course: family relationships are complicated. There are the inner-circle family members, and those further out, and sometimes they all bring their own complexities.
That journey is worthwhile for many of us (including me).
Is finding or re-finding faith like that journey?
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I agree with you. I think it is often like that trip home. Sometimes we fill up on junk food, and it doesn't go well. Sometimes we run into an uncle at Thanksgiving that personifies why we left home in the first place.
For nearly all of us, a trip to the place we grew up is followed by a trip to the place where home is now. Where home use to be, no matter how good, reminds us why we choose to make home hear. That's not true for everyone of course. Many wish they could go back to where home use to be, but can't for a variety of reasons. Figuratively and literally. (Thinking of all those imprisoned, but that's not really germane to the analogy.) For some, going home would be a very good choice. For others, leaving is a very good choice.
Increasingly I value intentionality. Thinking critically, but also meaningfully and with charity. Doing life and faith on purpose.
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For nearly all of us, a trip to the place we grew up is followed by a trip to the place where home is now. Where home use to be, no matter how good, reminds us why we choose to make home hear. That's not true for everyone of course. Many wish they could go back to where home use to be, but can't for a variety of reasons. Figuratively and literally. (Thinking of all those imprisoned, but that's not really germane to the analogy.) For some, going home would be a very good choice. For others, leaving is a very good choice.
Increasingly I value intentionality. Thinking critically, but also meaningfully and with charity. Doing life and faith on purpose.
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