Warning: This post was written when the author had been awake thirty (yes, thirty) hours straight. She cannot be held responsible for anything herein.

We are home!

Glorious home…where our beds know our form, where our cat greets us with much purring and a little disdainful miffedness, where we can cook fresh veggies and eat amazing fruit, where our car greets us with far too many noises (gotta get that checked), where French wafts in and through our lives.

Exhausted? You bet. We spent a full month away from the ol’ homestead. It’s so nice to unpack our suitcases. It’ll be great to sleep in. To gather in before the kids head back to school on Thursday.

And we are back into ministry in France, a sometimes difficult road. Today I read this from the founder of Gospel for Asia. It struck a chord. I pray that as you ready yourself for another school year of ministry, K. P. Yohannan’s words wash over you as they did me:

“The secret of our survival is fixing our eyes on Jesus and making Him alone our focus. Then our walk with God and our commitment to serve Him will no longer depend on whether or not people treat us right or circumstances are in our favor. We will no longer rely on our emotions to support us or on our successes to keep us going. Jesus alone will become our goal and motivation–our prize–and we will live for Him, run our race for Him and cross the finish line for Him” (Send! Second quarter, 2006, p. 23).

So if you’re struggling with circumstances not of your choosing, or relationships waged in struggle, or emotions threatening to snuff the joy from your life, look to Jesus. Make Him your focus this school year. And run that race toward your real Home.