Every holiday season we go back home to visit my parents who still live in the same house that we moved into on my 4th birthday. Going home means being taken care of, good smells, and holiday decorations everywhere. Home is memories and cookies and knowing some things don’t change.

I realize that, for some, going home looks different. Maybe home was hard and stressful, or maybe it was a place where your physical needs were met, but your emotional needs were ignored.

Our definition and experiences of home will vary, but God has a very clear idea of what home is, and is very clear of its importance to Him.

Home is important to God because to Him it means that He is with His people and that His people are with Him.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of the son who takes his inheritance early, squanders it on life’s pleasures, wakes up to the fact that he is surrounded by swine and starving, and heads home to his dad—the father he insulted and left behind.

Then Jesus says one of my favorite lines ever, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”(Luke 15:20)  Just like this earthly father saw his son from a distance and was filled with compassion that manifested into hugs and kisses, God wants to do the same with you.

Yet as Achievers, we tend to leave home.

 

We leave home because we believe that the key to our happiness and fulfillment is out there when really what satisfies is “God with us.”

Our Achiever nature says “you will be loved when you achieve, when you earn, when you get it right.”

But God says differently.

  • God says that “out there” is not where we should be.
  • God says “while he was still a long way off,” He is filled with compassion for us, runs to us, throws His arms around us, showers us with love.
  • God says “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
  • God says that He “is with you exactly and most ferociously in your moment when you most don’t have it together.” (Rob Bell)

 

So today, this very minute, listen to God as he says to you, “Daughter, come home.”

How in the world do we come home?

Coming home means letting go of the sin and shame, and accepting God’s full forgiveness for us. Coming home means refusing to live the try-hard life and instead embracing the grace He so freely offers. Coming home means fully believing that God loves you just the way you are, but loves you so much that He can’t leave you that way. Coming home means living an abundant life here, right this very minute. Coming home means feeling all your feelings and then laying them at His feet.

Achiever, I speak from experience that wandering off on my own path of trying harding and doing more seems far easier than coming home. But let’s stop the wandering. You and me both. Let’s just stop, turn around, and come home.

My prayer is for you to feel His nearness as He speaks that over you. He is not out there. But, oh Achiever friend, He is already with us.

So let yourself fall apart, not away from Him, but into His arms. Hear Him speak into your ear, “You are my Daughter, in whom I am well pleased.” And then, believe it and live as if it’s true…because it is.

Just like the story of the Prodigal Son, God sees you as you keep your distance. As you move toward Him, He is filled with compassion for you. Right now, He is running toward you and throwing His arms around you. He is covering you with His love. Just like the son, take one step toward home. No matter how you’ve insulted Him, no matter how much you’ve abused His gift, no matter how you’ve squandered it, no matter how starving your soul is: He wants you to turn to Him.

Achiever, your soul is telling you to listen to Him and obey what He says, “Daughter, come home.”

Just as we go home this season, coming back to Jesus means so much goodness. It means being taken care of, celebrating, of being near to the lover of your soul. It means being wholly and completely loved by the One who formed you, who designed you, who knows you best. Home is remembering what He has done for you, and knowing that He is the One who will never change.

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