Have you ever been homesick? Perhaps when you first left home… probably when you graduated from high school and left to go to (fill in the blank). Homesick really has nothing to do with where you are moving to as much as it always is based on a milestone change in your life, which always involves moving from the familiar to the unknown. You know your life will be changing and regardless of whether or not you are excited about the ‘new’, you know that when you do return ‘home’, things will have changed. You will have changed. The people remaining will have changed. But, the changes will be apart from a face-to-face relationship and so you will be meeting ‘new’ familiar people from your own ‘new’.
I tend to believe that ‘homesick’ is a reaction to the knowledge and especially the feelings that you weren’t part of or involved in the familiar which subtly has changed. There is always a bit of sadness associated with this realization. It isn’t a wish that I were here or a wish I weren’t there, it’s simply a realization that change always marks us and unless we are present, we see it after the fact.
All of this is understandable. But what if your homesickness is for a place you’ve never been? Is this even possible? I think so. And I think Paul’s lament indicates the dilemma. Philippians 1:21-26
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (v.21) For I am hard
pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with
Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless… (v.23)
In Romans (14:8) Paul tells us:
“For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the
Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
While it can be argued that Philippians and Romans are talking about two different longings, I don’t think so. In both, Paul is talking about here and now and the prize that will come. I suspect that in the final analysis it is HOW we live that’s at issue. We have been invited into a mission and it is our responsibility, once accepted, to do all we can where we are to be the Lord’s Ambassadors here and now. Longing for something that isn’t only wastes what’s in front of us. But I must admit… it can be somewhat seductive. Nevertheless…
