Today’s Reflection
Home is where the heart is, right? I am on an airplane on my way back to Nashville. After three weeks of traveling in South America, I miss my favorite place to eat breakfast, my dance class, and my hikes near the river. I miss shopping for groceries in a store where I can read all the labels.
Before this trip, I might have said my heart was in Nashville, where my apartment, my friends, my church, and my job are. Nashville is my home. Yet traveling through Peru, Paraguay, and Brazil, living out of a suitcase, I realized I may have misunderstood. Your heart is not where your home is. Home is where your heart is.
You cannot leave your heart behind. It comes with you, making itself known through its steady beat, racing when you think you might miss a flight, or opening wide when you see a beautiful skyline or a breathtaking view.
If the saying is true, we are always at home. With each beat of our heart, we are reminded that we are here and alive and at home in our bodies, in the world, in God. …
By having heart, I have everything I need to be at home. …
It took traveling thousands of miles for me to realize that I can’t leave my treasure behind because my heart is my treasure. I can’t leave my home because I can’t leave the ability to love, to connect, to be one of God’s beloved.
– devozine, March/April 2015
From “My Heart, My Home” by Rachel Kenney, pages 25-26 in devozine, the devotional lifestyle magazine for teens, March/April 2015. Copyright © 2015 by The Upper Room. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question
What meaning have you given to “home is where your heart is”? Share your thoughts.
Today’s Scripture
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Psalm 139:15, NRSV
This Week: pray for persons who are making life-changing decisions. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section.
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This week we remember: Joan of Arc (May 30).
Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
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13 Comments
Very grateful for church leaders to visit my parents and serve them the holy communion.
Blessings to all
Today’s reading was a good one for me as I prepare to leave the house that has been our family home for the past 14 years. We move one week from today and I’m consumed with all of the preparations- I always assumed that this grand old Victorian would be a place I would grow old and I pictured my kids coming back to visit and hopefully filling this house with grandkids and watching them run and play hide and seek in the nooks and crannies that my own kids loved. But now I’m leaving it. I’ve told myself that I can make anything a home and I am already working on that at a different address so that my kids will have a home base. It will be ok becusee I know that God is with me and that is where my heart rests. I feel like I have had to harden my heart in order to get though all that I have experienced in the last few years. I pray that someday my heart will soften and and that I’ll be doing more than going through the motions- so much uncertainty lies ahead but I know that God is with me-
Prayers for all those struggling with health issues and those caring for aging parents. Prayers for all who are going through transitions and are experiencing difficult family situations. Prayers for peace for all who come here today.
Lou, if you didn’t harden your heart somewhat you would not accomplish what you need to accomplish. Your heart WILL soften in due time, as it is naturally that way. Good luck on your move and may your transition go smoothly. Sadly, some dreams die, but other dreams take their place.
Prayers for Anneliese, home from the hospital, recovering, but has a high risk of a stroke, has three heart related problems, will go back to see the doctor soon. Thankful Erich has a day off from work, and will also have the weekend off. Unless you have done housekeeping at at hotel, motel, or resort most of us have no idea what it involves. It is tough work. Thankful that Mary’s parents had communion at home. Prayers for Gloria, Larry, Jill and Becky; Julie’s hands and foot, her daughter and their wellbeing, I lift up Connie, Betsy, Lou, Francesca, April. Missing Marcy and Rusty.
Am thankful for help from Germany with model trains. I am an avid steam locomotive fan, grateful they are no longer in revenue service, but restored and operable locomotives running now and then make my heart skip! If not the real thing, then models. Kassel, sometimes spelled Cassel, was the home of Henschel, a large steam locomotive builder. It is not far from where my family comes from and locomotives from Henschel operated on the Hersfeld District Railroad which is the basis for my Landecker layout. I have a model of one of the two types with which the railroad started in 1912. Finding the second model is my current research project.
Thankful for a beautiful day, it will get warm, so I’m glad to be in the gym, despite the sunshine.
Hopeful for a nice time with Erich this weekend. Will be happy to have our pastor back and it being the first Sunday in June, we should have communion.
Prayers for those facing hot, humid weather, floods, and volcanic activity.
This is an interesting reflection. Perhaps it is our human side that sees a place as home and our spiritual side that sees the heart as home. Like our soul and mind, we can’t see our heart. We know they exist, we feel them, just as we can feel the wind. Jesus said the things that we can’t see are more important. Staying focused on God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, also unseen, but felt, experienced, known fit in with mind, soul, heart and home. Thank you Rachel for this reminder, and thank You, Lord, for this lesson sent through Your servant.
I pray Anneliese’s health stabilizes, and I pray for you, Robert; it must he difficult for you. I am glad you derive joy from your interesting model train hobby, which also is related to your heritage. Thank you for sharing it with us. Continued prayers for Erich and the job he is working hard at. And prayers for little Pearl. Blessings.
Lou, Praying for you as you face the move from your beloved home to a new adventure. I know you will make your new home yours through the love that will fill it. It was so hard for us to move two years ago and leave the city and friends we loved. I has to lean on God and draw strength from him as I stepped out to meet new people and forge new relationships. I hope the same for you.
Thankful for a quick trip with my husband for business. I leave tomorrow for a weekend trip to see my children and attend the high school graduation of my youngest niece. She has suffered with seizures for many years, so this is a real milestone in her life, to graduate with her class. Her name is Victoria.
I’m continuing to lift up all the students who have been affected by the gun violence during this school year. Thankful for this faithful group of friends who gather here each day to pray, share and lift one another up: Robert, Jill, Marcy, Mary, Julie , April, Connie and many other unnamed but present.
With Christ in my heart – this is my home. My home with Him. A place to rest, cry, plead, seek forgiveness and renewal, praise. My physical home is a place of quietness and simplicity. The company of my cat comforts me in my solitude.
Lou – I will continue to pray for you during this transition and that, indeed, God would soften your heart, that you would continue to be sustained by Him. Love to you, sister.
Robert – I will be ramping up my prayers for Annaliese. May she get the medical care needed and have necessary assistance. Hope you and Erich enjoy your weekend together. Your hobby/passion for trains is a blessing.
I am grateful for being able to get to bed early last night. Grateful, also, for friends who listen – even when what they are hearing is a repetition many times over. I am grateful for the book of Psalms.
I gave my son a tag to hang up (like an Army dog-tag) that read “All roads lead to home” (and, of course, I think to myself “home is where I am!”)
Praying for Annaliese, energy for Erich, and Lou as she moves.
Thank you, Lord, for the prayers of Betsy and Robert and All. So glad Mary’s folks received Holy Communion. May it sustain them by the body and the blood of Jesus.
Somehow, I had always thought the saying meant that wherever my heart is that is my home. As the author learned after traveling. Maybe because when I was growing up we had to move often.
Prayers for Mary and her parents. When I attended my old church, I was one of the people who visited the homebound to give them commumion. I received just as much joy as did those I visited.
Prayers for Lou and her family. May they all be strong and find strength in one another and the Lord. Lou, your heart is not hard, it has merely become reselient . Your prayers and posts show your kind and giving and loving true heart.
Pryers for Robert and Erich to find much to enjoy thos weekend.
sorry
Prayers for Robert and Erich to fiind much to enjoy this weekend. Prayers for Anneliese and her dire health concerns.
Prayers for Betsy as she travels. May she be safe and enjoy her time with family. Prayers of joy for her niece and her success and triumph, she must be quite strong in spirit.
Prayers for Connie and her family. May her son find his heart with Connie.
Prayers for Jill and her family. and her faithful friends.
Just follow the day and reach for the sun!
The Polyphonic Spree
Carpe Diem!
Working the evening shift for a few days. There is a change in pace along with readjusting meals and sleep to make this happen. We have moved frequently in the last 10 years, leaving behind houses that I thought would be forever homes to our family. Peace comes over me as I remember Christ has been and always will be with me, no matter where I am physically. I pray for you Lou as moving day approaches. Christ is there with you.
“ You ask me how I know He lives…..He lives within my heart.”
Thankful for all of the wonderful comments and prayers for Anneliese’s health, Erich’s work, and my well being. Very grateful that God is with us all.
Prayers for Lou’s move. Lou I think your heart has been empowered by God and made you capable of all that you do. Prayers for Betsy’s niece, Victoria. Yes her graduation is a significant milestone after all she has been through.
April, I’m familiar with evening shift work and the changes that have to be made. Not easy, but God will see you through. Yes, Connie, may your son find his heart with you. I’m working on that with Erich. Jill, your cat, garden, the book of Psalms, and the quiet and solitude of your home are all ways God is reaching out to you.Andrea, may there be more positive times with your daughter and grandson. Despite oop see daisies they kept coming. Mary, communion for your parents. That’s a precious blessing.
Thank You, Lord, for all You do for everyone.
Will know in a day or so how well Anneliese’s pain management treatment went. Hopefully in a few more days there will be news on what can and will be done to help her heart problems.
Church, communion, and the return of our pastor tomorrow! Oh happy day!
God’s peace with all of you, now and always.
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