Where is your home?

I learned a lot at the retreat this past weekend, so please excuse me if several days' worth of blogging references the same event.  One of the main messages was centered around James 4 and John 17, in which we are called to be in the world but not of it.  This is a very hotly discussed issue within Christian circles.  What does that mean, exactly, to be in but not of it?  It's so easy to be either too far entrenched into the world, or far too disconnected from it - and both are dangerous places to be.  Where is that line?  How do you find the delicate balance that we have been called to find?

Living in Korea has offered me a unique perspective on what Jesus meant by saying this.  I am certainly living here - I have a home, I have a bike, I have friends, I know the transportation systems.  But I am also equally certainly not "of" Korea.  No matter how long I live here, no matter how fluent I become in Korean, no matter how well I get to know the city, I will always be a bit of an outsider.

So I've had the opportunity to really witness first-hand what it means to live somewhere, but not "fit in," per se.  I don't buy permanent furniture, I don't look for a nicer house, I'm not making plans to live here forever.  I still invest with others, I still work hard to make a fulfilling life for myself...but it's all done with the knowledge that this isn't my real home.  In the background, I'm always yearning for something else - home.  My real home.

C.S. Lewis said it beautifully when he said that "When I have found a desire within myself that no experience in this world can satisfy; the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."  Where is your home?  Are you comfortable and satisfied here?  Or do you long for something more?  Of course, He doesn't want you to go through life miserable or standoff-ish to the people He brings into your life.  But He also doesn't want you to get too comfortable or to accept too little.  God has created you for so much more.  

James 4:4-10

 ⁴ You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
   “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
 ⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.