A Homecoming and Coming home again

To be perfectly honest, Houston and I haven't been on the best of terms since (and before) moving up to Chicago, primarily due to this fear that sometimes comes to taunt me into thinking I may fail in my pursuits here and have to one day move back.

But last weekend made me feel different. I realized afresh just how rich a history I have in the Bayou City, what deep and proud heritage I have in my old church family there, not to mention the special bond I'm very fortunate to have with my flesh and blood family.

It's true that one can't live in the past, and singing songs lamenting the passing of the "good 'ole days" won't ever do anyone much good in engaging the present. But I'm realizing there's an equal danger in simply discarding the past in an effort to embrace the future. Remembrance is important. It helps us to appreciate and honor what's gone before us and to be thankful for the depth of what's been sown, producing hope for new roots to develop just as deep in the new places we find ourselves. To dwell in the past wouldn't be healthy (or actually possible for that matter...not really, as time and space is ever-changing and never remains quite as it was when we left it to engage in the present), but to visit and remember for awhile is a different story altogether.

Thank the Lord for BBQ and Tex-Mex and the Houston Vineyard and Samuel Jones and Tim Simpson and all of the others who have made such a rich impact in my life. How I wish I could carry all of them with me where I am at, or that we could all carry on together somehow, though we are in different places. Thank God for a climate (as much as I criticize it at times) where carnivorous plants can thrive and kids of all ages can take a swim in a summer that's actually hot enough to do so. Praise God for the myriad of amazing restaurants in the city and in the suburbs, and praise him for the quite-complex yet efficient freeway system that transports hungry stomachs to those desired havens.

Thanks Lord for making me a Houstonian. And thanks for the Houstonian Chicagoan that I am becoming and couldn't have become otherwise without my rich history in the Bayou City. From the Windy City, I thank you.