Home

Home is a relative term. Obviously there is a house in Dallas where my family lives and a room where I laid my head for the first eighteen years of my life, but is home more than a house? I think so. After being in college for a year, Waco is beginning to feel more comfortable than Dallas and I am beginning to sleep better on my twin bed that my feet hang off of, lofted 5 feet in the air than my full size bed on Purdue. Do I feel more comfortable in Waco because I traded beautifully landscaped lawns on Beverly for front yards where I can park my truck or because in Waco I can't see a movie past 10 or because in Dallas there is not a vending machine in my living room? No. I am more at peace in Waco because there is a community of people here who love me and claim me as their own. Before I go on any farther, let me give a disclaimer, I have an unbelievable family and friends that will last a lifetime in Dallas, but the community that I have in Waco are the people who on a day to day basis are helping me grow into the Robert I am becoming. Those in my past have shaped me into who I am today. One of the big components of any community is shared experiences or surroundings. There are parts of the fabric of the school and student life here that cannot be explained, but are simply understood by those who live in this town like the taste of George's half price chicken friend steak or the stereotypes that surround the fraternities and sororities (I really just love wearing boots...KOT stereotype) or the simple appreciation for a slower pace of life in a city that pales in comparison to Dallas or Austin.

If home is a community of people who know and love you, can you have more than one home? I think so. When I worked at Pine Cove this summer, the staff and friends that I made knew me in one capacity, the guys I live with know me on a day to day basis and see college Robert; back home I have a different set of memories and expectations those around me have come to know. I don't think that this is a bad thing, but it can become confusing when you bounce from community to community and places that were always so familiar become less familiar. Some day I will graduate and Baylor will begin to feel less like home than it does right now, I will move somewhere and I will form another community who will continue to shape and mold me.

Through all the major scenery/life changes I have been experiencing over the past year the verse that I have clung to is Philippians 3:20 "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." Our citizenship is in heaven, we can live in numerous places on this earth, but ultimately our identity and value is found in heaven with Christ, so if you are going to school for the first time this year and you feel uncomfortable, your citizenship is in heaven. If you just started a new job in a city that is unfamiliar, your citizenship is in heaven. If you are still living in the same house with your parents that you have always lived in, your citizenship is in heaven. With that in mind, begin this new school year with an open heart and mind to those around you and take everything in stride knowing that this place, wherever you are, is not it.