31 days :: the kick-off

So, today’s the day … Here I am, kicking off my first-ever blog post series:

I do, however, feel the need to preface this particular topic, and perhaps even offer a bit of a disclaimer.

Obviously, my ‘definition’ of home is biased. I don’t seek in this series to define home for the reader, but rather to share how my own personal reflections of home have changed and developed over the years as a result of various experiences and circumstances.

As I shared in a previous post, over the course of the next month, I plan to share:

reflections on my experiences moving ten times in ten years, including two inter-continental moves,

how my cross-cultural family has influenced my definition of ‘home,’

how my mom’s death at age 59 affected my view of ‘home,’

my temptation to get comfortable in this world, and

my deeper conviction that heaven is our real home.

The way I have processed these experiences, however, has been swayed and influenced by my upbringing. My worldview is not a neutral one. I’d venture to guess that yours isn’t neutral, either.

I write through the lenses of a female, a Christian, a middle-class American, a wife in a cross-cultural marriage, a mother, a missionary, a motherless daughter .. and the list goes on.

All of these factors will affect the way I ‘define’ home over the next 31 days.

I have a feeling that the ‘middle-class American’ in me will dominate the way my words fall into lines as I recount my journey thus far.

You see, I have always had a home. I’ve always had four walls and a roof protecting me from the elements. I’ve always had a warm bed, every single night.

This is painfully untrue for far too many people in the world. My slanted concept of ‘home’ is vastly different from theirs.

Ultimately, I hope to arrive at the end of this month of blogging with a firmer conviction that our individual perceptions of ‘home’ are immaterial … as long as we cling to the hope of the one, true, eternal home offered to us in Scripture — through faith in Jesus Christ.

So I hope you’ll join me in this journey — may it be a mutually encouraging one.

For a full index of posts as they are written, click here.