By faith

I have moved a lot in my lifetime. 12 different houses by the time I was 12 years old, then a big move from city to rural mountains, across state lines. God rescued me during a time of stability. In reality this was only three years but to me it was a very long time and since my mother still lives in the same house, the same town, it feels permanent.

I moved to a new and bigger city in a new and different state for college and within a year was getting married and moving to yet another state. This began 10 more years of moving every couple of years. I have lots of things that I could say about this journey. I have many things I could complain about and people I could blame. I won't though and here is the reason why:

^{Hebrews 11:8} By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tentswith Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations,whose designer and builder is God.

¹³ These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴ For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamedto be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

I seek this same homeland. I strive to embrace this life as a stranger, an exile as it follows me everywhere I go. No country, state or city is satisfying because the fight between restlessness and disappointment everywhere I go and my desire for stability both point to a promise that is a city whose foundation is built by God. 

I don't know if you can identify with that struggle. I long to be comfortable, settled and yet I know that I will never be comfortable (because nowhere here on earth is truly satisfying) and I know if I am settled it is only an illusion and only for a short time because God has provided something better: Jesus Christ. 

³⁹ And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.