oh why not...

i have finally decided to join the blogging community... honestly (this will tell you how indecisive i really am) it took me a while to decide whether or not this was something i really wanted to do. i should have never signed up for the aguascalientes trip blogging cause i think that threw me over the edge. one thing i do know is that i don't want this blog to just be about me. i've always known that God has given us each other for a reason and much of that is to encourage and nudge each other on towards living a life that is a pleasing sacrifice to Him. i want this blog to be about this... i have so many friends around the states, and even the world, that i want to keep up with and give little highlights of life... i want this blog to be about that too...

so here i go on a new journey i guess you could say. i hope that in this we are able to encourage each other to look more like Jesus. i don't want this blog to be something that draws attention to anything shawn and i are doing or thinking... i just want it to be a little log of sorts where we can communicate what God is teaching us and guiding us through at that point in time. i chose the title "longing for home" because i do long for our eternal home but i want to long for it even more. i want the things i do in my life to be done out of a desire that is eternal not just temporal.

in high school i became this rich mullins "fan"... well i absolutely love one of his cd's and i only own one so i don't know if this classifies me as a fan but whatever... there is a song i love and it talks about longing for home. i was washing the dishes the other day and when i do this completely boring chore, i love to think. often i think about how i wish i was like brother lawrence who wrote "practicing the presence of God" and how he used his time washing dishes to dwell on the things of God and how all that he does, even dish washing, can be worship to our Savior. so this song comes on and i remember when phil died and how much i hated this earth and the horrible stuff that came along with sin entering in... i longed so deeply to be out of here and with Jesus where death is no longer an option. i hated that life wasn't intended to be like this. as time goes on i find myself thinking about this less and less. oh yeah, so washing dishes this song comes on and i love the line that reminds me that i must long for home...

"there's more that rises in the morning than the sun
more that shines in the night than just the moon
there's more than just this fire here that keeps me warm
in a shelter that is larger than this room
there's a loyalty that's deeper than mere sentiment
a music higher than the songs that i can sing
the stuff of earth competes for the allegiance
i owe only to the Giver of all good things

so if i stand let me stand on the promise that you will pull me through
and if i can't let me fall on the grace that first brought me to you
if i sing let me sing for the joy that has born in me these songs
but if i weep let it be as a man who is longing for his home"

i want to live here on earth with intentionality and purpose but i never want this to get in the way of longing for home...