Home Ahead


"Home is behind, the world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
We'll wander back and home to bed."

 I am a big fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Those who know me best know that I love to quote little tidbits from the movies at random. Although I am not as bad as some "LOTR" fanatics, I admit that I have read the books 3 times in my lifetime and have lost track of how many times I have seen the movies. Can you blame me?

 I am not sure what it is about Tolkien's  trilogy that makes it such a beloved story for so many people today. He created a world that seems to us so real, where even the most minute detail is described in a way only Tolkien himself can describe. People resonate with the many themes of: leaving home for an adventure, an intense struggle with evil that is both inside us and outside us, things being finally made right, and (of course) the idea that little people can change the course of history!

 The song listed above shows a theme that maybe just sums up my life. The song begins by describing a journey of massive proportions. Where the travelers leave the security of home and face the challenges "through shadows to the edge of night." Then the song switches once the assumed task has been completed. "Then world behind and home ahead, we'll wander back and home to bed."

It is the idea of Homecoming. Of getting back in one piece. Of finally making it. As a Christian, I am on a journey to make it back Home; and I think everyone to some degree understands this deep longing. We all want things to be made right. We all want to finally feel as if we belong. And for some reason "Home" eludes us. We never quite find it.

 This attempt at a blog will touch on many ideas from books that I have read, to sports, to theology, to questions about life--but in it all I hope that it communicates the wonderful journey I am on through my Savior, Jesus Christ. I have not arrived yet, but I can't wait until I do. Until then let's journey together one step at a time. Growing. Changing. Ever longing for the day when we'll finally get "back and home to bed."

 "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

 --2 Corinthians 4:17

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