Wandering Souls: Navigating the Tension Between Earthly and Heavenly Homesickness

Back on the 12th, Micah wrote a great post about how to effectively live out your faith at home. Today, I write to those who can’t go home just yet, or perhaps don’t feel at home where they live.

When Home Evades Us

I absolutely love studying at Liberty, and I’ve been so welcomed and loved here in the US. But so many times I find myself saying that “it’s just not home.” However, at some point during my time back home in South Africa over the “summer” (it was winter and freezing, but that’s not the point here), I came to the realization that I didn’t quite belong there either. I felt as though my life had been paused while everybody else’s had moved on. Things were very much the same as when I’d left, but I had changed—as did the people around me. I felt like I’d been left behind, even though I was the one who did the leaving. Everybody had their routines and life had continued without me, but I was left in this strange in-between world where I felt I didn’t really belong anywhere. I had given up my place at home (temporarily), but the place I had stepped into was one that would be relatively short-lived. I felt untethered, as if I’d completely lost my place in the world.

Homesick for the Past

But maybe that’s exactly what I needed. I’d previously associated home with people and circumstances and ultimately, comfort. When I felt homesick for the first time, I longed for the familiar life I’d left behind. But when I actually got home, I gradually began to realize that I hadn’t really been longing for a place I could return to at all, but rather for a period of my life that was coming to an end. This was a hard reality to face, but once I recognized it, I could mourn the past and begin to step into the bittersweet new. I was reminded of just how fleeting this life is. A season can change, and with it, so many of the things we come to associate with home.

Homesick for Eternity

Regardless of whether home is a world away or right around the corner, homesickness touches us all. So how do we find home in this ever-changing life? Maybe we don’t—not permanently, anyway. II Corinthians 5 tells us that we have an eternal home in heaven, one we will long for while in this earthly life. Maybe homesickness can serve as a reminder that none of us are truly at home in this world. Home as we know it is just a shadow of the comfort and love that we who are in Christ can look forward to in eternity. “For our light and transient troubles are achieving for us an everlasting glory whose weight is beyond description.” (II Corinthians 4:17)

Finding Home Wherever We Are

That’s not to say we can’t experience pockets of home as foreigners in this world. As I’ve traversed this life in the US, I’ve been welcomed into the homes and lives of so many people, and I’ve truly been made to feel at home—albeit temporarily. I think that’s what it’s like to live in this (fallen) world. We constantly look towards our home with Christ, but He has sent us His Spirit, and His people to see us through. So when that aching loneliness hits, remember that you are not alone. And when that homesickness creeps up, ask the Lord to show you how to find family around you. The season you’re in might be brief, but in the grand scheme of things, so is life. So I challenge you (and myself) to search out and find “pockets of home” in the here and now. It doesn’t have to be permanent and it doesn’t have to look like any other home you’ve known, but try to build a home for yourself with an eternal perspective. Your ultimate home is not going to be found in this life—the more you grow in righteousness, the less satisfied you will be in a fallen world. But the Lord will place people in your life to get you through the harder seasons. Pray for eyes to recognize them and courage and humility to allow them to give you a home for however long you need it.

We Are Called to Be Home for Others

Just as we need to open our eyes to the people God has placed around us to support us during difficult times, we also need to look for those we might be called to support. How many people around us are aching for a place to call home? How many people might just need a glimpse of home during a difficult time? A comforting word, an intentional gift, or even just a compassionate ear—these can make all the difference to someone worn out by living in this foreign land. God’s people have been called to be hospitable to the stranger since the earliest days of Israel’s existence, and Jesus’ ministry was very much focused on inviting the outcasts in. So what if we reframed our idea of home from a specific place we’re tied to into a set of more temporary experiences that reach far into eternity? How might our witness to the world look if we offered a home to the homesick and continually reminded each other where our true home lies? It might make this path toward holiness a little less lonely and a little more beautiful.