I’m kind of old-school when it comes to keeping calendars. While I enjoy my smartphone and all the fancy gadgets that keep us connected on our computers, I still keep a Franklin planner, and I daily transfer my to-do list and plan my day based on this time-tested old Franklin planner system.
One of the things about Franklin planners is they always have a quote from somebody at the top of each day’s page. Today, it was a quote from Leo Vroman. And, quite frankly, I found his quote to be a little sad. It says, “I’d rather be homesick than home.”
I did a little research on Leo and found out that he was a Dutch poet, now a U.S. citizen. During World War II, he was displaced from his home. Then later in World War II, when he lived in the South Pacific, he was again displaced by war activities. It seemed to me that all of us would rather be home than homesick, but when your home is in turmoil, struggle, and pain – when your homeland is under siege – his quote seems to make a little more sense.
The problem is there are people in the United States and in our Christian ministry who may not be blunt enough to say this, but in fact live their lives as though it is better to be homesick than home. They’d rather talk about missing their families and say that they should spend more time at home instead of making the commitment that God intends for us – to be good fathers, mothers, children, aunts, uncles, and other family members.
This weekend I spent some time with the Pennington family. David Pennington is our CFO, and for two weeks, his family invades a beach town in southern New Jersey and just relates to each other. It’s not the place; it’s not the beach; it’s not the weather. It’s the family. Aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins and new, grafted-in-through-marriage members of the family relate to each other. No one in that room says, “I’d rather be homesick than home” because home is awesome.
It is my prayer that our homes will be places where we so very much desire to be because we find our roots and acceptance there. The greatest news of all is that when Christ comes and takes us all home, we will understand what true family and true community are all about.
