Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons
- Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts
We haven't lived in Fresno, California for a long time (almost 13 years for Heidi and 9 years for me). We left a long time ago.
We had to leave... to obey Jesus.
...but when we return we remember what this place represents:
It's the place of family.
It's the place of rest.
It's the place of our first ministries.
It's the place of our deepest scars but of our first faith, hopes, and loves too.
Every time we return we remember how God used this place to shape us in the season we lived in its womb.
So we returned to Fresno
On the plane, as we looked out the window anticipating our return to Fresno, we thought, "There is the light of sabbath rest beyond the horizon. God only knows how much we need it."
I suppose that unless you are looking for rest you'll never find it.
We are looking....
and finding it.
In every sunset
....and every sunrise...
...finding the rest our souls thirst for.
"You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run."
- Augustine of Hippo, Confessions
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