Home Is Where the Heart Is

It was Christmas morning 1991. I left my church in Kentucky shortly after the midnight Christmas Eve communion service. It was a two hour drive. It was late. I was alone on the road, well almost. The red lights flashed in my rearview mirror told me differently. I looked down, 70 in a 45, oops! I deserved the ticket.

As the officer took my license and registration, he asked me where I was going in such a hurry. “Home for Christmas,” I said with a smile on my face. I was excited to get home for Christmas.

The officer wasn’t so excited. He was working on Christmas. It was 2AM. I was driving quite fast. “It says here you live in Florence, KY. You are heading the wrong way to be going home.”

Okay, so his bad luck to be working on Christmas was starting to look like it might go very bad for me. I tried to be respectful and explain that I grew up just a few miles up the road. I was almost home. I only worked in Kentucky. I was coming back home again in Indiana for Christmas.

That did not impress him. He went back to his car. It was some time before he came back to my window. Instead of handing me a ticket. He told me to slow down and have a Merry Christmas. Without any humor, he pointed back to his car and said that my high school friend who was riding along with him and vouched for me. Thank you Mr. Wilson!

I currently live in Kettering, OH. I love the community. I love the people here. I am excited about what God is doing in our lives. But whenever someone asks me where I am from, I always ask, “Where am I from or where do I live?” There is something about my little hometown in Indiana. I know what it is. My family. My childhood memories. That is home.

Randy Alcorn in his book, The Treasure Principle, writes, “The greatest deterrent to giving is the illusion this world is our home.”

Where is your home? Is it here on earth or is it The Kingdom of God?

In Luke 16:1-13, Jesus tells a story of a Shrewd Manager. His boss was upset. He was about to lose his job, so he quickly went to everyone who owed his boss money and discounted their accounts. Jesus commended this man for acting so shrewdly. He went on to say that we should “use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (v9). His point is this use earthly wealth to invest in eternal relationships.

The Treasure Principle says this “You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.”

God owns everything. We are simply His money managers. We have the responsibility to set our own salary to take care of our needs and our family. In our culture, we have to prepare for retirement as well. But when all is said and done, we have to remember that what we have belongs to God.

Jesus says use the earthly possessions to invest in eternity so when we get there we will enjoy the friendships that were created.

We are spiritual beings with a physical body. God is eternal. He has no beginning and no end. We have a beginning but we live on for eternity. Are you living for the temporary or are you living for eternity?

If you ask me where I am from, I will tell you Indiana. If you ask me where I live, I will tell you Kettering, OH. But if you ask me where my citizenship is? It is the Kingdom of God.

We move towards what we focus on. If you look at a pothole, you are more likely to hit it.  If you want to grow spiritually, invest in eternal things! Generosity is the investment vehicle of eternity. Are you preparing for eternity?