Home is where the heart is...

Yes, definitely. But it's more complicated than that.

As I embark on my final apartment-search and move I am confronted with a billion decisions. Do I look for roommates? What questions do I ask landlords? How On Earth Do People Live Like This?!!

Craigslist, Fuller, Westsiderentals, and lots of block-to-block meandering have led me to wish I had a million dollars, or that I was living in another state, or that life was maybe a little more fair.

So I think I'm getting closer. After narrowing down the search from a $600-900 single/studio/1B1Bth (over a hundred and fifty options) to a 7-800 1B1Bth (more like a hand-full of options) I think I might have found a winner (that is provided nothing crazy happens). So wish me luck! I'm going to need it... and some moving help if you're around and don't mind carrying boxes up stairs.

Wherever I end up, I hope to call it home until I graduate from Seminary. This journey has been an interesting one. I have learned a lot, and God continues to challenge me daily to trust in the grace and mercy that has been extended my way. I have done a lot of soul searching and I am more humbled by this calling and more excited about what God will reveal and do in the next two years.

I do want to take a moment, as it is Advent and we anticipate the miraculous and glorious birth of Christ, to consider how profound a tiny change can be. Christ came to earth as a tiny baby, dependent on his earthly parents to provide, shelter and protect him from forces that were greater than they could even imagine. Christ, in flesh, needed clothes and shelter just like any other human being. Just like myself as I search for a new apartment. But Christ, the Lord, came in order that we might be redeemed from the struggle and weight of this flesh and bone. What I try to understand is how to live each day, in all my bodily reality in light of this eternal gift. I struggle to acknowledge and care for my body and physical needs when I see others who also have even greater physical needs. I long to be free of this body and the maintenance it requires, though I wish even more to understand more deeply the joy that comes with living this life well.