Home Home

I feel like I've finally come home. Or rather that I got there this past Thursday.

One of the first things that we do here as a group is to give our testimonies - our life stories, our walks with faith, and how we came to be in this place. Matthew pointed out in mine that I mentioned my search for 'home.'

Home, of course, is the ultimate place of comfort and belonging that we all have somewhere - or all long for somewhere. I was at home in high school. I had a very close group of friends. I have struggled, however, to come home again since then. I couldn't stay in high school forever, I had to go to school and that ultimately meant leaving Wichita, and besides, my friends were leaving too. So my journey began - I left home.

At USAFA, home was the Warrick's bible study. The Warricks are a beautiful couple who have devoted a portion of their life to the bible study that they hold for cadets in their home on Saturdays, at Arnold Hall on Wednesdays, and pretty much wherever we ended up on Fridays. They were an inspiration and provided a safe space for us all. They were home for the most part, but I didn't always feel quite at home there.

Here in California, though, I feel like I have come home again. Thursday night I started going to a bible study called Grace on Campus held down at USC - about an hour's bus ride away - where the people are so genuine (much like at the Warrick's) and the message is pure. Thursday night I felt at home.

Sunday I went to church at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, and afterward to lunch with the same group, and the feeling remains. Here is a place where I can find a niche that is wholesome and challenging and where my walk will be strengthened. Here is a place where I can learn the love that makes our homes warm - and that makes us open to feeling that warmth, because really, it has always been all around me, but I haven't always been able to feel it.