Seven jobs in three years must be a record, right? Right??
How dull is life when you’re not looking around. Sometimes, we can look around too much, chasing after passions, or pursuing what we covet.
The rolling hills of Pennsylvania farmlands. The fresh smells and foods, and sun-worn faces of the people and visitors of Cyprus. The cold, rainy nights of London. The merry, warm people of Munich, Germany. The busy, racing pace of Nashville in all it has to offer.
Homestate: The slow, sometimes dreary days of a Maine winter. The normal, nothing-new options of hometown.
I’ve spent hours working with kids with autism, teaching them to name which object is blue, and which is red. I’ve spent days working in a slick-clean whoopie pie kitchen, baking, filling, and eating way too many delectable whoopie pies. I’ve spent days of learning to navigate the roads and areas of Nashville as a missionary. I’ve spent hours and years at my home church as an administrator, youth leader, friend, and worship leader. I’ve spent thousands of dollars only to end up right where I started and to realize this one thing:
Jesus is Home.
He is the only thing/One/place I want. The only One who satisfies. The One for Whom I am created.
Came home to my love, and my Love came Home. Finally Home. Home is not where the heart is. Home is wherever my God is, and wherever He is, that is where I long to be.
God is gracious. He didn’t constrain me. No, He let me learn that He is where I belong, with Whom I belong.
I cling to the words Jesus prays to our Father in John 17:
“Father, I desire that they also,
whom you have given to me,
may be with me where I am,
to see my glory that you have given me
because you loved me before the foundation of the world”
John 17:24 ESV
So good is my King! Right before being taken to His earthly murder scene, He asks our Father that we could be with Him where He is going to. (Insert cry face emoji 
). Do you see that He wants us to see the glory? Do you see that He wants us to be in that place He was in, with the Father before the foundation of the world? Do you see He was before the foundation of the world?
Oh my GOODNESS! Jesus loves us so much! He is about to suffer and His prayer to the Father is this:
That we would be with
Him in His glory!
Let me ask you this:
Do you want people around who you don’t care for? When you are having a party, don’t you want people that you are excited about, love deeply, and care about, to be in your presence?
Jesus wants us. Us! He wants us with Him in the glory He was given before the foundation. Oh, He is almighty! Who else was around before the foundation of the world?
This Almighty God wants me with Him in His glory from before time began.
If that is not enough to grant us peace from searching, coveting, traveling to find anything home-like we are searching for, then we will be searching for all our lives on earth.
Coming back home to my love – marrying my husband, Greg, was a very big decision. It was a very huge (in my human mind) decision to take travel, music, possibility, and combine it with another person’s life.
In that, I have found this: even the greatest of earthly, God-given relationships and stories of adventure do not come close to the love of the Father for me. And my love for the Father.
He is my Home. My Father is where and to Whom I belong.
Gracious is He who allowed me to learn this through my travels instead of sitting me down in a classroom to etch it into my brain. His grace covers the dollars used, the jobs undertaken and the employee turnover, and the commitment… surrender learned in between.
His grace is enough.
It is the perfect Home.
Bizzy (short for Elizabeth) Oulton has a passion for sharing the love of Jesus with others and encouraging those around her. After graduating college with a marketing degree, she’s found utmost joy in missions work and serving within both local and international ministry organizations, and in local school systems. Mentoring younger girls, singing on the worship team at her local church, Eastpoint Christian Church, and writing music bring her most joy. Bizzy and her new husband live in Windham, Maine. Bizzy loves a good cup of coffee and always is up for a laugh.
