We are moving…once again. Susan counted 27 different places we’ve lived (homes, flats, camper trailers). No yurts or cave…so far. As can happen, closing dates shift and rain delays moving dates, and we are living as nomads. For now, we have suitcases and a borrowed bed, and we are surrounded by life’s flotsam and jetsam.

All this unsettledness leaves me longing for home.

We are twelve months into a pandemic that has transformed how we do life. Mask up, double mask up, careful with what we touch, keep our distance, drive through and eat in the car, get swabbed at the first cough or sneeze, and avoid groups at all cost. That means no concerts, no conferences, and for many no church worship, no funerals, no weddings, no school.

There, again, that unsettled feeling. Nomads in a strange land. Hanging out in our tents.

The Bible names us “sojourners” – travelers passing through. The word means “to stay a day among others.” That means we are not home yet – we are “on-the-way-ers.” Could there be a better image of seeking and serving God? As lovers of God and lovers of people, we pass through lives and give love and hope as if they represent the God we serve, as “sojourners.”

Maybe my unsettledness is a nudge that I’m not home, but today I get to sojourn – I get to be with people, make memories, give hope, laugh, cry, and give what I am to others as an “on-the-way-er.”

Here’s to new places and keeping a bit of unsettledness as we get settled.

Sojourning with you – Rick