Renewing the mind…Where is your “home”?

I was near the end of a twelve day trip to China when the meeting for my last scheduled day there was cancelled.  “Mr. Burke,” the lady from American Airlines on the other end of my phone call said apologetically, “we can get you back home a day earlier, but there will be a $1,200 charge and you will have to layover 2 hours in Tokyo…and you will not arrive in Nashville until 10:30 p.m.”   “I’ll do it,”  I said with only slight  hesitation.  ” I want to be home!”

I know that not everyone has a happy home to go to.  I fully understand that not everyone had a childhood home that was warm, nurturing, and full of love like I did.

I LOVE HOME…as witnessed by the many times, as an adult, I passed up staying over to play golf after a business meeting…and by the times as a college student out of gas money, I hitch hiked back to Donelson for a night at home. (Hitch hiking was not so dangerous then, I think, but please don’t tell my Mother.) All the years that I was required to travel for business, I would not choose to be away on weekends for any personal enjoyment, if instead,  I could be at home with my girls. I enjoyed being home much more.  I still do.

Home for me is love.  It is where I have always been accepted.  It is where the people I love most are; where the things that matter most to me, matter most.  It is where I find rest, and although it is not always one hundred percent peaceful, it is the most peaceful place I know.  I choose to be there whenever I can. It is where I find my nourishment…physical, emotional, and spiritual. My mind, my character and my heart have been shaped the most by people living in my home.

Yes, I leave home almost every day for all kinds of purposes.  But home is where I return. By choice. By instinct.

I find that my mind operates this way also…it seems to have a home. My mind leaves its resting place often. I get focused on a task or an experience and my mental energy is directed toward that…until it’s over. Then my mind returns to a slower gear, a resting place. Almost as though my mind has a home where it is constantly returning.

To me, an important question is “where does my mind return when the focus is not required?” Do I, as I have in times past, start thinking about more ways to make money? Do I revert into some pattern of worrying about things in the world or in my current situation? To what do my mind and heart return? Where do they “reside”?

Is that maybe what Jesus means when He offers us a home.  He tells us to “Abide in Him.”  “Dwell in Him.”  ( John 15; Ephesians 3:17-19; 1 John 4:13 )   Not only that, but he promises to abide in us.

Can you really have Christ as the place where you abide?  Where your heart and mind come to rest?   Can your mind be renewed enough that you abide in Him?  Can your mind be renewed BY you abiding in Him … By Him abiding in you?

As infants and then children, we rarely have any say over where we live.  But as adults, most of us choose where we live.  Our choices might be limited or dictated by certain circumstances, but we do have some choice.  And most of us have a lot of discretion about the amount of time we spend there.

As followers of Christ, we are instructed to “Abide in Him.”  We are to obey.  But, that means we do have a choice.

Have you chosen to abide in Christ?  Does your mind return “home” to him when it is not focused on your daily tasks? Do you stay close enough to Him that when your mind and heart are “at home”, you are with Him?  Are you there enough that being in His presence is transforming you mind?  Is being with Him, learning from His life and His words…and being transformed by Him more important that thinking about your next business meeting, the PTA fundraiser,  or the upcoming football game?

I want to abide in Him more and more…and for Him to dwell in me.  Time spent with Him is what transforms my heart and mind.  It is how I can become more and more like Him, and how I can more and more reflect the person that I can be with Him in me. Is this not how I can know Him and begin to share in God’s divine nature as promised in 2 Peter 1:2-4?

Think about where you really live…and the dwelling place Christ offers to you.  Where do you want “home” to be? You have a choice. Choose wisely.

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