Coming home

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I don't know if you experience the same thing: going away for a couple of weeks, coming back and feeling like you've not been away at all.

I've been away for two weeks. Apparently lots have changed. England won the Cricket World Cup in a nailbiter of a final; Boris Johnson is the new PM (and the world has not ended... yet...); my (nearly 2-year-old) son seems to have grown up all of a sudden; London experienced it's hottest day ever.

And yet, on my walk to work this morning, it all seems to be exactly the same as I left it two weeks ago. The same shops are still selling expensive coffee; the E-car charging points still have the same graffiti; there is still the same amount of traffic on the road; people still wear headphones while walking (as do I); my desk at work is still messy (sorry about that...).

So what's the use of going on a significant journey if coming back only means more of the same as before? I don't know. But what I do know is that, because of this journey, I look at the world differently. Even though it is still the same world I return to, the way I look at and interpret it has changed. Hopefully for the better. I notice how what I took for granted before is actually a real privilege. I notice the joylessness of wanting/chasing more than I need. I see opportunities in what I have been blessed with, rather than a sense of entitlement. Though my circumstances have not changed, the way I look at them have.

Paul writes to the Romans that, if we worship God by being a living sacrifice (a life surrendered to the authority and sovereignty of God), our minds will be renewed to the point where we'll be able to discern what God's will is (Romans 12:1-2). Even in the mundane, everyday, same-old-same-old things we encounter. And that's a journey of discovery I can get on and want to remain on.

May we all get to look at the world we live in through new eyes, to the glory of God alone.

Selah.

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