Finding Hope in Homesickness

Once you leave home it doesn’t take long to realize that homesickness can literally make you ill. Some days I walk around with a small level of homesickness that clings to my heart but there are other days where the weight of grief is heavier and I feel it in my chest, constricting my breath, my body fatigued.

I long for home.

Because cross-cultural living has been a part of my life for so long I can’t even pinpoint this place I long for. I am 35 years old. I have moved 26 times between 4 countries. And therein lies the problem.

There is no PLACE that I long to be. There is no place where I fully belong, there is no place where I am fully known, there is no place where I am fully understood. Instead, every place is worth missing and regardless of what country I am in or who I am with, I am still longing for someplace or someone special. Homesickness follows me everywhere.

I spent years trying to suppress this sickness that seems to trail behind me. Maybe if I dig roots deep enough? Maybe if I let go of the past? Maybe if I just don’t need anyone? Maybe then, the grip of loss will lessen on my soul and I will be able to move forward with life. Stable and free from grief.

But I’ve found that I do myself a disservice by diminishing and denying this longing I have. Because within this pain there is something to be taught, there is something to be learned and something to be grown. In the denial of the pain there is the loss of the gift found within it.

There are those who do not know the depth of homesickness that we can have. They belong where they are, as God has chosen them to be, and yet he has given to us a different experience. One that holds a deep, spiritual truth that we can uniquely understand. We are not of this world. In fact, we are aliens, walking in it and yet not of it.

If I close my eyes for a moment and ruminate on those words, I can pull up images of real experiences that capture those truths. I’m sure we all do. We KNOW what that means. Not because we have heard a story or been given an example but we have LIVED it. We have FELT it. We KNOW it. And in that knowledge, we gain a piece of Christ Jesus himself, and an understanding of our place in this world. After all, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58)

This longing and homesickness we carry is a grace. It is a gift. As God strips away, little by little, the people and places and languages that have formed our identity, he gives us himself in their place. Our longing is a revelation of need that only God can truly fill.

Romans 5:3-5 states, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

In the end this suffering, because it is indeed a suffering, will produce within us a hope as we allow it to do its intended work. The graciousness and preciousness of God is that he has not left us to figure it out on our own but he has poured out his love and given us a piece of himself. The Holy Spirit, indwelling within us, is a piece of our eternal home. We fully belong in him. We are fully known by him. We are fully understood.

My homesickness remains because the loss is real. But framed in light of what I know of God my grief can be layered in hope. Hope that longing has purpose. Hope that God will be glorified. Hope that one day soon, I will stand before my savior, he will wipe away the tears I have cried and he will call me his.

I will be home.

What has being ‘homeless’ taught you about yourself? How has God shown himself within your longings?

6 Comments

  1. Christine September 29, 2017

    As I was reflecting on current situations and the topic, I found myself realizing how much it resembled grief. Then, the post about the similarities between the two came along and I laughed – I wasn’t the only one with that though. When I really pushed into what was under the homesick feeling, I found grief but more so the longing for things like safety, comfort, and love. It’s easy to think that home is the only place with those, but I’ve come to find it here as well if I let myself see it.

    1. Joy Smalley September 29, 2017

      Hi Christine, I love that you said you have found safety, comfort and love within the place you currently live. I think I can get bogged down in the longing that I miss seeing the pieces and glimpses of belonging that are around me. Thank you for that reminder.

  2. Amy Young September 29, 2017

    I love what Christine said about safety. I find that I will have deep longings of homesickness when either I am missing out on being a part of something or I don’t feel known. People are the doorways for me to feel sad . . . I think this is related to one of my strengths on strength finders being includer. If I am not included (um, because I am on the other side of the world I can feel homesick).

    1. Joy Smalley September 29, 2017

      I can absolutely see how being excluded from certain events/activities because of distance would intensify homesickness. I like that you are an includer 🙂

  3. Hannah December 19, 2017

    Amen, friend. Thank you for this. The longings and imperfections of this life remind us that we aren’t home… yet! I find many Christians, including myself, have not been taught how to scripturally lament to the Lord and to allow that lament to drive our longing for Him and our true HOME with Him! As opposed to grumbling which turns from the Lord to seek hope in circumstances, lament drives us to the feet of the Savior to place our hopes in His faithful promises. As we run to Him with our homesickness, He Himself becomes our longing! When we grumble, we seek to escape painful circumstances, often through rebellion and sin; but when we lament, we humble ourselves under His mighty hand and learn from Him who is meek and lowly in heart – and we find rest for our souls. Thank you for these needed meditations. Praying for you guys! Much love.

    1. Joy Smalley December 19, 2017

      Hey Hannah! I love how you differentiated between lament and grumble, one turns our back to God and says we can do better and the other follows our grief to the feet of Christ. It is so true. Much love back to you, my friend.

What do you think?

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.