Home.
When it’s a cold, rainy day when your jeans and shirt feel damp after running errands to the grocery, bank and my daughter’s program at school, I can hardly wait to get home.
When I’ve been stressed with responsibility, the smell of apple cider brewing on our stove helps me breathe in a little peace.
When I’ve been on my feet all day and I just want to put my feet up, home is where I put on my comfy pajama pants and slippers.
When it’s our kids’ bed time and we tuck them tight under their blankets and answer their random, and sometimes deep questions, it makes home is so sweet.
Those bedtime moments reminds me of those when the kids were younger and I’d read to them those Dr. Seuss and fairy tale books. And when I think of home I think of the classic “The Three Little Pigs” where the pigs built houses made of straw, sticks, and bricks and the wolf came and huffed and puffed and blew the straw and stick houses down. But the brick house remained standing because brick is hard to break or tear down. Now the most common moral of the story is that if you work hard, taking time to make wise decisions, then you’ll succeed.
But for some reason my often crazy mind, which sometimes thinks a little (if not too much) abstractly, began to see this old tale from a different view.
Yes, two of those little pigs chose to build their homes with whatever they could get their hooves on because they quickly wanted somewhere to feel protected from that evil wolf. They wanted a place to hide because of their fear.
Supposedly the third pig gave the impression that he had no fears and was a smart bacon and had life all planned out. He chose to build a house the way he wanted it to be, with walls that were hard to tear down. He was for sure going to feel safe and comfortable in his home.
We don’t know the rest of the story and what happened to that pig years down the road, but if he’s anything like me or some other people I might know…then he gets very comfortable…too comfortable. Everyday he has a routine and his home becomes a place to get away from the aggrivations and troubles of the world and unintentionally becomes a place to hide where he knows he’s not risking anything to save his self.
The brick wall becomes a comfort zone. It’s a place were I can stuff guilt, mistakes, problems, laziness and issues I’d rather ignore in the closets. In that brick house I can run and jump on the sofa, throwing a blanket over me to hide when I hear the door being knocked. I’ve put so many different locks and chains on the door, it’s too overwhelming figure out which key goes in which lock. I become bound. Bound to captivity in the comfort zone. I must have been trying as hard as I could to give the impression that I didn’t have any fears.
Do we stay in our own little comfortable place where no one will ever see you because you don’t want to risk…anything?
A brick is hard to break, much less four walls that surround you.
Has my heart ever been as hard as a brick?
Can the heart God created in us form into hardened clay like a brick where it’s hard to allow anybody in those walls that have been built? Is it difficult for you to get out of those walls of your self?
Those self-gratifying, self-seeking, self-pity and selfish parts in me can get trapped inside.
The heart was created to be absorbent, pliable and moldable…all the time.
Instead of becoming hard and rocky, He wants our hearts – our lives - to be more vulnerable, bendable and real. God promises us a home…that Promised Land. He offers the gift of freedom filled with blessings. Home is where He wants us to breathe and move and flow…and take a few risks every now and then. Break down that wall of comfort. After all, the Best Selling Story is full of risk takers.
I want to risk being real. We are most real in our homes where we laugh, lose our temper, love, and lose our minds...all in one minute! There, our hearts are real. God created us to be real.
Do you know your heart’s home? Are you willing to take a risk and break free from your comfort zone?
God promises us an eternal home…that Promised Land. He gave that promise to the Israelites who were slaves in Egypt and would rescue them from bondage, captivity and false security. God wanted to deliver them from the bricks they were forced to create and build walls with, and give them the gift of freedom land where their homes are filled with blessings….Tomorrow let’s delve into another perspective of our true Home and where you are bound.
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