California Love!

Well I flew in to LAX last night from Des Moines, Iowa and I have to admit that I miss the homeland already. Not just because my beautiful wife is in Iowa, though that is the main reason... (I love you baby!) but its just hard to be away from a place that has become so much of a home for me. As Katie and I started our new lives together as a couple we have really only known Iowa as "home" and so part of me is always wanting to be there, in a space where my life is my own. I love the area, not just because of the physical surroundings or environment, because I really like the warmness of So. Cal, as oppossed to chill rushing through Iowa currently, but because of the emotional landscape of being on my own.

The new picture I have of life and new beginnings is such an awesome one, that I miss the joys of figuring things out on my own, trying new things, taking risks and living free. I was listening to the Mosaic podcast and Erwin McManus was discussing whether God cares about us or not, and it struck me that the joys of new beginnings are what drives the heart and character of God. As I travel a long way home, through Housten, Texas to Los Angeles and just seeing so many people, new and familiar, seeing each as a light and object of God's love. It is very cool to think about how many moments and and choices we have to move in a direction towards God and justice and beauty and compassion, or towards those moments that we regret ourselves and see in us the darkness that we so desparatley want to evade. The ability to start over, like Katie and my life in Iowa, to make a new step forward in a new direction towards a new goal, makes us truly the most human. Not to make this all sound contrived, but isn't that when we are most at peace with ourselves? When we are facing a new situtation and we might be scared or unsure, but have an intrinsic curiosity and anticipation brewing inside and ready to burst out with action and compassion. This is what it means to be alive. I am alive and I cant wait to be home, home is when I am with my wife, home is in Des Moines, home is where I am alive...