It is Sunday morning. After a month-long Tour de Texas, it\u2019s good to be back home again \u2013 \u201chome\u201d home, and to my church home. I hear: \u201cYou\u2019re back!\u201d \u201cWelcome home, Donna!\u201d \u201cWe missed you, Donna!\u201d I love those words: \u201cWelcome home!\u201d Can we even fathom what those words meant to the prodigal son when His dad welcomed him home? I\u2019m in MY pew and MY seat. Well, it\u2019s not really mine, but I get here early enough to claim my territory! Second row, first seat, middle aisle where those of us who are honored and humbled to be communion servers stand. Easy to get to my place from here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no place like home with my \u201cchurch family\u201d. We are the ones who team up in volunteering, serving, sharing, loving and praying. A common goal \u2013 to let our little lights shine here and out there. Wherever I go, God goes — so, actually, everywhere I go is home sweet home. But, I see Him loud and clear in my church family. We walk hand-in-hand in some tough times and in the over-the-top good times. We are family. We\u2019re a part of the Family of God \u2013 we\u2019re brothers and sisters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I kneel for a few minutes, I exhale all the busyness of my life and I inhale the One Who got this whole \u201cchurch\u201d thing started in the first place. He wanted us to come together in one accord. He wanted us to bear one another\u2019s burdens. He wanted us to be Him to our world. I sense my Lord here. In this place and in my heart. I know Him intimately. He knows even more about me \u2013 even those annoying fly-away hairs that I have to keep licking my fingers to make them stay down. I express gratitude, with all this journeying I do, for getting me safe and sound back here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I look around. I see Him in the etched glass reaching His arms out to His disciples. I get chills just thinking He\u2019s holding His arms out to me in the same way. After all \u2013 I, too, am one of His disciples. He says: \u201cFollow Me!\u201d And, I follow. I see Him in the stained glass above the altar \u2013 the hand of God symbolizing the Father, the Lamb symbolizing the Son, the Dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit. I\u2019m familiar with the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I know them well \u2013 not as casual acquaintances but as MY never-failing, always-present, Holiest of Holy team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe you don\u2019t have a church family \u2013 those who go toe-to-toe with you in good times and tough times; those who see you and come with a hearty hug for you. I have an investment in this place \u2013 my time, my talent and my treasure. The return on my investment is peace, joy, comfort, stability, hope, love and long-term (lifelong and beyond-term) pay-offs. Here\u2019s my humble advice: If you want the best return on investment (ROI), there is nothing like investing in the Kingdom of God, investing in people. People will endure through time and eternity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We don\u2019t have a mission. God has a mission and has invited us to become part of His mission. We are the people to accomplish that mission. Someone said, \u201cKeep the main thing the main thing.\u201d The main thing is the mission of God. If you want real ROI, be a part of a team of people who make you better because their interests are beyond themselves. Their interests are Kingdom-based, people-based. Together we\u2019re strong and stalwart with eyes on the prize. So, onward, Christian soldiers! Marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is Sunday morning. After a month-long Tour de Texas, it\u2019s good to be back home again \u2013 \u201chome\u201d home, and to my church home. I hear: \u201cYou\u2019re back!\u201d \u201cWelcome home, Donna!\u201d \u201cWe missed you, Donna!\u201d I love those words: \u201cWelcome home!\u201d Can we even fathom what those words meant to the prodigal son when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14125,14122,14124,14121,14123],"tags":[14116,8725,1083,14120,3306,14119,5349,823,2066,5350,2563,1813,14118,327,14114,14115,12188,14117,8618,1702],"class_list":["post-10669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-family","category-investment","category-prodigal","category-roi","category-welcome-home","tag-aisle","tag-busyness","tag-church","tag-church-family","tag-disciples","tag-etched-glass","tag-exhale","tag-home","tag-home-sweet-home","tag-inhale","tag-investment","tag-mission","tag-pew","tag-prodigal-son","tag-roi","tag-seat","tag-sunday","tag-territory","tag-trinity","tag-welcome-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10672,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10669\/revisions\/10672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}