Missionary Jim Elliot, one of the missionaries killed in Ecuador on January 8, 1956 (five years later, I was born on that day), stated the following:

“Wherever you are, be all there!

Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”

—Jim Elliot

As a fresh-out-of-college music teacher in the Detroit area in the mid-1980s, I was actively involved in the music ministry of my church. It was there that I met a quiet, humble, gracious, lady—and she truly was a lady—who I will simply call “Judy” in this post. Judy sat beside me in the soprano section (yes, I was a mezzo-soprano back then), and I loved talking with her during the breaks in our weekly choir practice. She, too, was a single woman, though several years my senior, and perhaps the contentment that was reflected in her quiet, calm spirit was what most intrigued me about her.

Judy would wrap an entire life lesson in a simple sentence that was overflowing with wisdom and grace. It was one of these sentences that struck me and stuck with me.

Because I attended private high school and college in the same location (and lived in the dorm for eight years because of that), my friends were scattered all around the country. I wasn’t “settled” yet, and I probably saw everything as temporary. Besides, I was in my twenties, dated a lot, and knew I’d be leaving at some point to get married—after all, isn’t that what happens after college? So why plant deep roots, right?

I talked with Judy one evening and mentioned that I just didn’t feel like I was having an outreach in this new location and didn’t feel like I was being accepted in my new church. In my (what I now see as) immaturity, I mentioned with great casualness (i.e., I flaunted it with my words) that it didn’t really matter because I would be leaving town to go “home” for Thanksgiving, so who cared if they didn’t accept me.

In gracious tones that I can hear to this day, Judy smiled, paused, and gently spoke these words:

“They’ll accept you when you accept them and call this your home.”

We often use the excuse—and yes, we use it as an excuse—that “home is where the heart is.” While that is true on many levels, the Christ-follower should have a different definition:

Home is wherever God wants to use me.

It doesn’t matter if you are in a pastor’s family, work in vocational Christian ministry, work a secular job, or follow God’s plan for you by serving Him faithfully within the walls of your home on a full-time basis. You must consider where you are to be place where you are supposed to be.

In fact, don’t just be there—live there. Or, as Jim Elliot added, “Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”

Embrace where God has placed you. Look for the reasons He wants you there. Yes, by all means, maintain, miss, and treasure your friendships and memories from previous locations, but use the lessons God taught you through those friendships and memories to help you foster new ones.

So thank God for where He has placed you today, then look in the mirror and say, “Welcome home.”

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Now it’s your turn to comment:

When facing a new location or a new situation,

what helps you to finally call it “home?”

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