Trail Talk: The Meaning of Home

Hey, everyone, it's a beautiful winter day. I'm out hiking and I thought it was a good day for a trail talk because there's something that I've been thinking about, and that is home, home. You know, we take for granted, I think, what home is, what it means.

For those of us who didn't grow up in a good home, which is a shame, we kind of have an idea in our minds of what we want home to look like. And usually it's influenced by other people's homes or homes we've seen on television or somewhere else.

And since the death of my grandfather, I've been thinking a lot more about this because I realize more than I think I ever have how much I want to pass down a legacy to my children so that they know who they are.

And I think because my wife's pregnant now, too, that the culmination of both of those things have me thinking about this. And it's also so they know who their grandfather is and who their grandmother was and their great grandfather and people that they're not going to know.

I want them to have something that tells them who this person was because they meant a lot in my life, in my wife's life, and they helped shaped who we are. And so it gives them a grounding, I believe.

And it's a hard thing when one generation passes away and a new generation rises up because you feel like you've lost something. Like there's you know, like I know my grandfather, I had experience with him, but my kids will never have that same experience.

They only have the stories that I can tell them and that my father can tell them. They only have videos that I've taken and things I've written down. And it's not the same, obviously. And so, you know, what is that yearning?

Why do we want to do that? Why is it that I want to go to the old places, not just show them and talk about who he was, but I want to show them the places where he lived and things he accomplished. What is that yearning?

And so I've been thinking about that a little bit. And, you know, I think in the West, especially, and it's probably not unique to the West or unique to the United States, but that symbol of the family farm has been for generations an important icon of what home means, what true home means.

And a lot of the Hallmark movies, I don't really watch a lot of Hallmark, but I see enough of the advertisements and stuff to know they're still capitalizing on that, that idea of a place where things tend to make sense, where families get together, where they celebrate the holidays, memories are made there, love is there, and there's trust that's built, and there's an investment on a particular piece of land.

And this is actually a fairly conservative instinct, but it's something that's not unique to conservatives. I just, I don't know that people who are on the left who also feel this tend to realize what their policies are doing to it.

But this is something that's somewhat universal, I would say, whether it's a farm or just some other kind of place of gathering, place of belonging. And I am two generations removed from the family farm.

My children will be three generations removed from the family farm. And that's kind of a hard thing. It's a fading thing. It's something that was once present, which my grandfather took for granted, because that's how everyone was at the time in which he lived in rural Mississippi.

And I got to go back with him and see the old homestead and tour it with him, at least the property, maybe 10 years ago, or it was probably longer than that now, maybe 12 or 13 years ago. And I don't have the memories that my dad has or that obviously that he did at that place, but it meant something to me.

It sort of communicated that this was a place that I also belonged, that this is something that I had a sense in which I had ownership, even though I don't have the property deeds or rights or anything like that.

But there's a sense of ownership there and a comfort. And then I think of my grandparents' house. They had it since the 1950s in California, and it was always a stability. You'd go back and it was always there.

And my grandfather on my mom's side just lost his house last year. I mean, he passed away, but then the house was sold. And it's almost like that the house being sold is another death in the family, even though no one's died.

It's just that this place of memories has been taken away. And that place is home. There's a sense of home there. And I want to talk about what that is a little bit, because I think we don't think about it perhaps as deeply as we ought to.

Sometimes we take for granted, we feel things, but we don't really tend to think about what it is that we're feeling. And I think that oftentimes evangelicals who want to, unfortunately, carry water for the political left distort what home is.

And they sometimes spiritualize it to such an extent or they replace it to such an extent with a spiritual home that they miss out on something, I think, that's rich that God created. So I desire to leave to my children a place where they know that they belong.

Security as One Meaning of Home

And the reasons I think for home, which is what I'm calling this, and this is not exhaustive necessarily, but these are just a few, security, right? That's kind of an obvious one. I think we all know that.

Isaiah 32, 18 says, my people will abide in a peaceful habitation and a secure dwelling and in quiet resting places, Isaiah 32, 18. And there's more to it than this, but I think this is a good starting point because we all kind of know this.

You're safe at a police station though, right? Even though that's not home. So you could be in jail, to be honest with you, would be safe. And it's not really home. And I think modernity has increasingly attempted the pressure of modernity to convince us that home is only security.

It reduces it to that one thing and a place to pursue your individual interest. That's really it. And those could be vices. I remember when I lived near Raleigh, North Carolina, there was a lot of people moving in from the Northeast, trading in their homes there.

Many of them in the city, so they were probably already used to apartment life, but they're coming down to Raleigh. And there's these all-inclusive communities that were popping up. And I thought it was dystopian to be quite honest.

Your grocery store, your barber, your restaurants, your exercise, everything, everything except a church is right on the property that you live. And it's not just you, it's everyone, right? You have hundreds of people living on the same property in condominiums.

And the grass was astroturf. And I just thought, this is dystopian. This isn't home. Everything looks the same. This is manufactured housing. Your place is no different than the other person's place who lives next to you.

Now, obviously, sometimes you have to live in situations where it's, you know, less than desirable. And some of us are used to that. And you make those areas that are somewhat perhaps sterile. You make them as much as you can your home by decorating them and putting things, you know, pictures and things in there.

But it's not the same as the family farm or the old homestead, right? We know this. And yet you have security. You might even have more security there than you would at a family farm. So, why is it that we don't consider that as much of a home even though there's security?

Home as an Extension of the Person and a Place of Blessing

Well, home is also the extension, I think, of a person. There's a Bible verse that says, the Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. The righteous and the wicked have different ways that they live.

And they invest themselves into their property, their home in different ways. And the Lord recognizes this and treats them accordingly. The dwelling of the righteous is an extension of the righteous person's actions.

They're obeying God's law, the love that they have. So, home is, and I think about this with my grandfather, right? I'm going to walk in when I go out to California in two weeks. And I see, again, all the rooms that he was in.

And I'm going to realize something's missing because you see evidence that he was there and that he built things and that there's pictures, but he's not there. His Bible's going to be sitting there. His chair's going to be there where he used to rock and used to talk, but he's not there.

And so, I think that also just signals to us. We feel that, but it's a truth we even find in scripture that home is an extension of a person. And it's a place of blessing. It should be, at least. Second Samuel 7, 9 says, Now, therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you.

For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. And this is, I think, something we also feel when we go back home. Think about when you're traveling home for the holidays, the place where you grew up or the place where family's going to gather.

It's a place of blessing. It's a place of love. It's a place where you're refreshed. And we're looking forward to it. We're anticipating it as we're on our way there. It's like the Psalms of Ascent when they're going up to Jerusalem, to the house of the Lord, right?

It's called the house of the Lord. It's the dwelling place of God. It's where he meets with you. And they're singing on the way because it's home. So, it's more than just security. It's a place of blessing.

It's an extension of a person. In the case of the house of the Lord, it's an extension of the Lord. And it's a communication of ownership and belonging. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God.

Believe also in me, Jesus said in John 14. And my father's houses are what? Many rooms. And if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Well, this is a place where Jesus is dwelling.

And he's making a home for us to dwell. And it's custom. It's for us in particular. And so, it belongs to him, but it also belongs to us. We have a belonging. We are meant to live there with him. It is ours.

There's a sense of ours and usness in this. And it's a place of interaction with others. And I think this is something evangelicals, I think today, modern evangelicals tend to focus on the security, which everyone in the world does.

A home is just a place where you're secure. But the other thing is they also emphasize this. It's a place of interaction with others, not just ourselves. God made his dwelling place, the tabernacle, to interact with his worshipers.

And I think hospitality is the word that you often hear, that we should be hospitable, that our homes are not for us. Some would even say, I've heard this before, you know, you don't even own your home.

It's really the Lord's. And there's a sense in which that's true, but actually, there also is a sense in which it's an extension of us.

It's ours.

And it's not just for other people, okay? But it also is for other people. It is, we're showing, we're displaying the blessings of God for others in a home. And we live in a generation, I think, that's homeless, unfortunately.

We live in a generation that's moved around all over the place. They're, you know, they don't even have a concept of, you know, how far back was the family farm? I mean, they don't know, or any stability sometimes.

Divorces, and there's so many things that really separate someone from a sense of home.

Today.

And I think we're a homeless generation that is longing for that. I think that's why a lot of people get caught up in some of these social justice stuff, because they think it'll fulfill that in some way.

There's a sense in which they're with other people working towards a common purpose, and they're going to usher in some kind of a utopian scheme that is going to be home. And it's not. It won't be home.

You can't just replace your family. It's, you know, one of the things I've heard a lot, and I think there's a sense in which this is true, but, you know, you can, if you have a bad family, right, you can go to the church, and a lot of Christians emphasize this, and, you know, there is where you're going to find your brother, your mother, you know, replacements in a sense.

And there's a sense in which, yes, God is gracious, and, you know, I have people at the church that I'm close to that are like uncles, that are like, you know, grandmother figures and so forth. But there's also, I think, a plan that God had since the beginning of creation for families to share life together, not just on Sundays, not just when they see each other.

Periodically during the week, but to be raised in a home, to see every aspect of life with a person. And there's a lot of people that are just missing out on that, and you can't replace that with a friends group.

You know, Friendsgiving is never going to really replace Thanksgiving. And so, I think we should, when you have dysfunctional situations, we should just be sad about it,.

Right?

It's okay to be upset about that. It's okay to mourn that. It's kind of like, you know, when you hear modern Christians talk about, you know, being single and that, you know, you should be fulfilled. It's like, well, you should.

There's a sense in which that's true, but God also made a plan. And his general plan for everyone was for man not to be alone. And so, you know, I think that home is just like that in a way, that, you know, even though there's a spiritual home that we're going towards, it doesn't abrogate or replace the temporal home we have here.

That's also important. That also shapes us. Even it prepares us for the spiritual home we're going to have. That's why it's important when you're raising kids to raise them in a good home. It's the same, I parallel it with marriage.

I mean, there's going to be, there's a symbol in the marriage that we have on this earth that reflects something in heaven, but it doesn't mean that what we have on this earth doesn't matter. And I think this is one of the reasons evangelicals are weak on immigration, because they don't have a sense of not just home, but homeland.

You know, if you think of modern Jews, they maintain an identity no matter where they are because of a shared homeland. They have a temporal identity that matters or an identity, I should say, that there's a physical place on this earth that their identity is related to that matters.

Because it's in the original intention, of course, in the Old Testament was it reflects something eternal. Abraham was looking past just the physical home to something spiritual, but that didn't mean that there wasn't a physical home.

And I think for us, we have to realize that too. Home is important. Physical home and homeland is important. And this is coming up in the election this year, to some extent, when you have people like Nikki Haley, and I don't want to be overly political with this, but I'm not saying who I'm supporting or anything in the primaries, whatever, right?

But I do know that I've heard things from people like Nikki Haley and others where they really are just very motivated for Israel and Ukraine and all these places. Meanwhile, our southern border is a mess.

And I think that people are sensing what they're feeling when they feel anger is they feel like there's a homeland, there's a shared homeland that they want to defend, that they want to make sure isn't changed too radically.

And I mean, you think about someone coming into your personal home, and if you have too many people who are different, they speak different languages and different traditions, it changes your home around.

And it's no longer an extension of that person or that family. And the same thing's happening in the United States right now and in different regions in the country. And so, homeland is important. And I think that this goes, obviously, much deeper than the political.

It's something, though, that I think has ramifications for the political. And I think this is something evangelicals, modern evangelicals are very weak on. We don't have a strong sense of home. And because of that, because we've replaced it, or we've said it doesn't really matter, it's just our spiritual home, or the only reason we have a home is to share with others.

And it's not really an extension of the self. It's not these other aspects that I just talked about. It's just security or a place to share with others. I think we miss out on something deep. And we should value home.

We should do as much as we can with what we have to create a good home environment for our children, to pass down a legacy, to let them know where they belong, to help form their identity, to give them stability in this world, to give them something to fight for and to sacrifice for.

And without that, if we don't have shared loves and shared things that we sacrifice for, we don't have not just a country anymore, but we don't have a home. And you don't have a family. And so, these things are vitally important.

Sponsor Read and Closing Remarks

So, here's a little slice of my home right now. You can see the background. And it is absolutely beautiful. I want to end with a word from our sponsor. And you can tell me whether you think this is based or cringe in the comments.

But this is a little video of me coming up this particular mountain. And this is true. I've only eaten jerky today. And it's not jerky from the United States. I think it was raised in the United States.

But it's actually a South African style of jerky called biltong. And so, this is a new sponsor for this particular podcast. I hope you enjoy it.

God bless.

Some say life is not about the destination, but the journey. I say it's both. Sometimes it's a gentle whisper. And other times, a raging river. Life has its hills and valleys. Sometimes we have to jump creeks and scale cliffs.

But we have the strength for both. We have a map and we know where the trail leads. Just above the horizon is the glimmer of what comes next. And it's what drives us forward. Until we reach our final destination.

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