How to Find Your Proper Place

Where is home? Is it where your family lives? Where your work's located? How do you find the comfort of home? Do you sometimes feel out of place? 

Living in two cultures brings with it a sense of not belonging anywhere. Not only do I live in a foreign country, but I also live in a Quechua village where three cultures and three languages collide to make the mix even more interesting. Feeling out of place is an understatement. Yet, somehow I am at home. When we arrive in the States, I feel at home. My language is spoken. My friends wear what I wear––well, once I get to a store and update my look. Then comes a new haircut. Yes, friends make sure I get where I need to go for this new look. I look the part, but am I at home? Yes! Why? How can I be at home in two places and still not fit into either place?

The answer is simple. I'm at home because I am where God wants me to be. I am in His will. "Home" is being in God's will.

Matthew 6:33 "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (NIV)

In God's will, we have a proper place of belonging––a home. One day we'll arrive in our forever home. Until then, we find a home in the center of God's will.

Are you in your proper place? Is there a warm spark of home in your heart?

Burdened Burro

Can you find the burro?

Did you know, if a burro is overloaded he will sit down and refuse to move? It's true, we see it happen on the road in front of our house. The burros in our village still carry a load of corn or alfalfa from the fields to their homes. They return home alone––they know the way.

This poor guy must have been on the brink of sitting down. Maybe the limit was just one more cornstalk. How do the owners know the limit of their burros? It must be that they live and work with these animals day in and day out for many years. Burros can live 30 years or more; they will work hard for many years. But, if they are abused their life-span will be shorter.

What can we learn from the burro? Do we know when to sit down if the burden is too much, the way the burro does? Like the burro, we have a Master who knows us, He walks with us day in and day out. If we are over-burdened, whose fault is it? 

Maybe we have put the burden on ourselves, and it is time to review our priorities. Maybe we can delegate––let go. We are about to start a young couples' workshop here in Rumi Rancho. God has worked it out perfectly, but we had to seek help––we couldn't do it all. Six of us will do the necessary things to make it come together. Chuck will lead the study, Juan and Amelia will help with the setting up, and Pablo and Nathaly will lead the singing. I will show up with the snack, and of course, add some laughs when things start to get dull. By delegating, we can do more ministry and be more effective. We can reach and teach more children and adults, because God has provided a way, so we won't be over-burdened.

If we think we can't do one more thing, maybe we can't. Time to sit down. God is not going to overburden us. But, we can overburden ourselves.

The burro's master knows his animal's limit––our Master knows our limit. 

Let's seek God's priorities and lighten our load.