There’s no place like home.

I’ll agree with that one. There are people and things your home has that it’s hard to duplicate anywhere else. Your own bed and pillow. Knowing where everything is (or, for those with a more carefree home, at least you might know where to start looking). Your favorite snacks or ingredients. Certain smells, textures, lighting, temperature. It combines together to make a house your home. You might not even like all the smells, textures, lighting, temperature, etc., but it’s still your home.

You can get that “home” feeling other places, too. Places that are familiar, associated with the people you love and experiences you remember and appreciate. Church, a workplace, a school, dorm, restaurant. When you’re there, you feel “at home.” You have a connection.

Home is where the heart is.

I was recently somewhere that definitely didn’t feel like home to me. I didn’t like the smell. I didn’t like the sounds. I didn’t like the activity. I didn’t know anyone there, except the people I was with. It wasn’t home. Yet my heart was there, at least a bit of it, for a brief time. I realized my heart can be in a lot of places that aren’t home for me. And I was challenged, because my heart really should be in places that aren’t home for me.

I’m not talking about the places God personally cautions me against (which, by the way, He might lead you into. He knows we have different weaknesses and strengths, and He’ll consider both as He guides us. I might need protection in one area but bold courage in another, and where He leads you might seem a flip-flipped version of mine). I’m talking about the places where I need to set aside my own junk, my hesitations to get out of my comfort zone and into someone else’s, my willingness to open my eyes, ears, and heart to see and reach people as God intends.

When Jesus said, “Go,” He didn’t add “where you’re comfortable,” “where it makes the most sense,” or “where you want to.”

He said, “you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We go where He leads. We stay where He leads. We invest where He leads. We struggle where He leads. We obey where He leads. We worship where He leads. We share where He leads. We follow. He leads.

It’s not about us…except for our willingness, humility, and obedience. The places that don’t feel like home are still where our heart is, because it’s where His heart is. When we follow Jesus well, our hearts beat with His. And if that means stepping away from the familiarity of home and going somewhere, near or far, filled with smells, sights, and activities we don’t like, to mingle with people we don’t know but that God loves, we need to embrace the adventure.

Open your eyes, ears, and heart. God is leading you somewhere.

When they saw Him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:17-20)