Mi Casa

My home is the most valued possession I have besides our precious photos and priceless family heirlooms. I do love my guitars, amps and studio gear, but you can't sleep inside of a guitar case or keep food cold in a speaker cabinet. Our biggest monthly outflow of money is toward the mortgage. As my father-in-law says, a car that's filled with family is carrying precious cargo. Our home is the same: it holds my loved ones. It is a protective shell that shelters my family from weather and creates a needed, private barrier from the world where we can retreat. Brenda and I take great measures in caring for our home because the investment is so immense. It's a high priority in our lives.

You can tell a lot about a person by how they live. I think it's true that the way a home is maintained testifies to the condition of the owner's life. A humble dwelling that is well kept shows a heart that is in order. Even a mansion that is disorganized and disheveled reflects the inner life of it's keeper. The size, expense, or location of the home is immaterial. Sometimes the opposite is true--we hide disarray with a mega-clean exterior, trying to avert the eye of the beholder from the true lack of inner cleanness. This idea may sound over-wrought, but I believe it.

When I was traveling, I lived in hotels, buses, cars and vans. Brenda and I have lived in trailers, apartments, rental houses, and even stayed with friends for a while as our home was being built. There is nothing more gratifying than owning your own home. It is amazing how we care for the things that we work hard to acquire. Free stuff doesn't generate the same pride. I am also amazed how people let their homes pile up with junk, inside and out--the front yard looking like the Munster's at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. I am not saying that everyone has a perfect canvas from which to paint a storybook castle. Some folks will never own their own home, by choice or otherwise. But if you nurture what you have, you are living the good life. Brenda was talking to a gentleman the other day who lives in an enviable part of Nashville. He said that his home looked like a movie set on the outside but was full of problems on the inside. What a perfect analogy of many people's lives.

The news came yesterday morning that a family from our church lost their home in a fire. I can't imagine what they must be going through right now. We will pray and help to establish a place for them to live while they rebuild their home and lives. Even as we hold tightly to the things we value on earth, they can be snatched away in a second. In reality, the home we build is made of people, not wood, nails, brick or drywall. I am grateful for this little bit of heaven that God has entrusted to us here in Spring Hill-- thank you, Lord, for my home.