there's no place like home

Twenty-six years. That’s how long it’s been since I’ve been in a movie theatre.

The year was 1985 and the movie was “Witness” starring Harrison Ford. For the record, I enjoyed the movie and still do via DVD. But no more trips to theatres.

Why? Where do I start?

The cost: $10, the same cost as Netflix for unlimited online viewing at home for a month, as well as multiple DVDs through the mail. Decision: No-brainer if money’s tight, and it is. And if you want some popcorn, candy or a soft drink, forget about it. You might have to take a home equity loan on the house. I could get a five-course meal in a fine restaurant for the cost of some Goobers and a Mr. Pibb at the theatre.

The distractions: Gum on the floor, a tall person in the row in front of you, people talking throughout, babies crying, teenagers necking, people getting up to leave the theatre during key parts of the movie, and, well, you get the idea. Distractions at home: None.

The inconvenience: Instead of sitting in a Lazy Boy at home and snuggled up against my wife, I have to battle traffic, find a parking place, stand in line to buy a ticket and knock an elderly woman aside in a battle for the last aisle seat.

Shall we go on? Let’s not and say we did, okay?

I’m curious: Aside from being a tad grumpy, can you tell anything else about me from the above?

How about this? I like being home.

I’m a homebody like nobody’s business. And yet recently I’ve been thinking a lot about my other home, my real home: Heaven. And truth be told, I’m yearning for it a lot these days, much as the Apostle Paul did some 2,000 years ago.

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”1

Like Paul, I’m confident that when I depart this earth I’ll go to be “with Christ, which is better by far.” Unlike the Apostle, however, I’m not sure that it’s “more necessary” “that I remain in the body.”

Is my ministry bearing fruit? Am I of value to the kingdom of God here? Does the Lord still want me around down here?

As I mull over these questions and evaluate my effectiveness (or lack thereof), one over-riding thought keeps rising to the surface: I yearn to go home. My real home.  

Can anybody else relate?

“I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”

1  Philippians 1:20-24