No Roots
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” John 18:36 NIV
I once asked Muriel Cook, counselor-at-large for the Multnomah School of the Bible, what she considered a woman’s greatest need. I thought she’d say love or family.
A woman can withstand a lot of turmoil if she knows her life has protected walls around it. A loyal husband, supportive friends, and a “nest” with all her favorite furnishings gives a woman a sense of well-being.
Men and women both need a home, but Jesus never had that security.
Maybe you are feeling the insecurity of adjusting to a new home. Old friends you could always depend upon are miles away. Your new kitchen is too small, the rooms too dark. Familiar routines are broken as you force yourself to develop new ones. The Bible reminds us we, too, have no true address on earth.
I find comfort in the transient life of Jesus. He never dug in His heels and said, “I’ll operate from this office.” Instead, He traveled about meeting the needs of the people. If we can refocus our jittery emotions and find our home and security in Him, we will be free to move forward and meet the exciting challenges we find in our new community.
Carol Stratton, wife and mother of four grown children, lives in Mooresville, North Carolina, has been a writer and speaker for eleven years, and has been published in Your Church, InTouch , and CBN.com. She takes advantage of the wisdom she’s learned in her twenty-two moves with her new forty-day devotional book for movers called Changing Zip Codes: Finding Community Wherever You’re Transplanted, published by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. The book is available at: http://www.amazon.com/Changing-Zip-Codes-Community . See her website at www.changingzipcodes or her book Facebook page: Changing Zip Codes.
Thanks so much, Carol, for your encouraging and challenging post! Readers, have you moved around a lot? Or have you dealt with being uprooted? How do you find your security in Christ?
Comments 20
As the go-to girl, I’ve been fiercely independent all my life. So, depending on God was probably the hardest command for me. Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding.” Daily I have to give up my independence.
Great post!
I love that verse, Pat!!
Lovely post, Carol, and so true! I haven’t moved around a lot. Just the normal stuff. Moved away for college, then once more after. Is that boring? LOL
Um, I don’t think anyone who has ever visited your blog would call you boring, Jess! 🙂
I have lived in the same place for nearly my whole life, but like you, Mel, I went to Europe for a study abroad thing. It was just for a summer, but it totally changed my perspective. Suddenly I was forced to figure out how to get places…and got lost. I don’t like feeling lost. But eventually, I found the joy in the adventure.
Carol, I like how you talk about our home being in Christ.
Studying abroad is the best!! I definitely found crazy amounts of joy in the adventure, too.
I’ve moved around a lot, sometimes between countries, including nearly 30 years in Canada. This post says it just right, our best security is deeply-centered rootks in Him. Thanks, Carol.
You HAVE moved a lot, Dee. You’re someone who, to me, always definitely seems to know where her best security lies.
Love this message – finding our security in Him. So true! Thanks for the post, Carol!
And thanks for stopping by, Stacy. Loved seeing your new book cover on your blog today!
Ironically, the only time in my life I’ve been uprooted and asked to live somewhere I didn’t want to live was IOWA! 🙂 It wasn’t personal against the state – I actually think Iowa is a beautiful, friendly, enjoyable place to live, but it was the first time I’d moved away from my beloved hometown, my family and friends and I didn’t know anyone. My husband and I had just been married and were attending Iowa State University in Ames. Eventually I found a job and we began to make friends, but you’d often find us back home in Minnesota on the weekends. God taught me so much about myself, my marriage and my faith in that year and a half and looking back, I wish I would have purposefully enjoyed my time there more. We hope to get back and visit Ames soon – now I know many Iowans! 😉
Even though I’m totally biased toward Iowa, I can definitely understand your reluctance to leave everything that was familiar. You should definitely come down again sometime–we could hang out! 🙂
I’ve never moved…well, unless you count moving ten minutes down the street when we got married:) And I have to agree, there’s something about having family around–sure they drive me crazy (LOL), but there is a certain amount of security in it.
Oh fun, Susan, you even still live on the same street? And I thought I was pretty blessed to live within an hour of family! 🙂
I’ve moved several times, including to Fort Bragg which was a culture shock. It took a while to get used to sitting at a stoplight next to an Army Humvee and hearing artillery blasts from military exercises. On the phone, my mom would ask, “Is that thunder?”
It wasn’t an easy place to make friends. Talk about a transient society. But I did meet my husband there. So well worth the time I spent there. (Much happier here in Charleston, SC though). It’s so easy to feel disconnected and alone. Christ being our home…no matter where we go. Love that.
Oh my goodness, Marney, that WOULD be some crazy culture shock. But yay for meeting your husband there. Hey, I was near Charleston for a week earlier this spring…looove that city!
Next time you’re in Charleston let me know. Would love to get together.
Will do! 🙂
During the military family years, I had to get used to saying goodbye to friends and family. That was tough. As a woman, I’m relationship-oriented, and uprooting myself from relationships was painful.
Yes, I had to learn to rely on God … but at times I had to admit I was flat-out lonely.
Funny thing is, now that we’ve settled in CO, some of my closest friendships are long-distance.
I think loneliness is one of the hardest things to deal with in life. I enjoy being alone at times, but hate being lonely.
Yay for long-distance friends, though, and things like email and texting and facebook and best of all, airplanes to get us all in one place!