A couple days ago, I stepped off another plane and into the balmy Texas heat. Scanning the long line of slow-moving cars, I finally spotted our silver RAV4 headed my way.
Just like that, I knew I was home.
Not because I was near my house, but because I was heading toward the one who knows and loves me completely.
After Helen and I enjoyed a rare dinner date all by ourselves, we started the 2-hour journey back to our house. When I opened the door, Lucas ran to me with arms outstretched. “Daddy, where were you been?” I scooped him up and smothered him with kisses. Mommy carried Ezra in from the other room. As soon as he saw me he started flapping his arms and squealing “D! D! D!” in delight.
This year I’ve taken about a dozen work trips – mainly speaking invitations Helen & I have decided I should accept for this season of building relationships. Each time, I forget how quickly I’ll miss my family until the goodbye. Each FaceTime call becomes a countdown. Each text a tether pulling me back to what matters most.
Home.
It’s simply obvious and obviously simple, I know, but it hit me again: I’m not the only one desperate for this feeling.
what is home?
We say it so often: Make yourself at home. Home sweet home. There’s no place like home. But what are we really talking about?
Home isn’t real estate. It’s relationship.
A place of belonging. The experience and feeling of being known and loved. And we are all starving for it.
In too many ways, our modern world seems to be engineered to make us feel “at home” in things that are not actually our home. Social media’s illusion of connection. The endless chase for more money, more stuff to make us more “happy”. Neat and tidy affiliations that actually pit us against one another.
So much of this only distracts us from what we really need.
I know this is big, deep stuff. And I can’t pretend to have all the answers.
But I believe we can find home if we stop, listen, and look around us. We can create it – for our families, friends, neighbors, and strangers.
In giving it to others, we’ll find it ourselves. And it multiplies, moment by moment. It inspires everyone who experiences it to give the gift to someone else.
the mission
Someone once described their dad like a bridge when you’re driving in a hailstorm. Outside it’s loud and chaotic. But the moment you pass underneath, everything reorients. Peace. You can see clearly again.
Last week I wrote about building bridges across divides, but I also want to be this kind of bridge in the storm for someone else.
That feeling that says “you belong right here.” People need it more than ever. Not just in the hospitality industry, but in the checkout line of the grocery store, in the comment section on social media, in the office, and the coffee shop, and all the unexpected encounters.
I want others to feel something they don’t expect: acceptance, understanding coming from the heart. Grace and humility. Kindness and love.
Home is less about where you live and more about how you are loved – and how you love.
Every time I come home from a trip, I know – I feel – this truth. And for that, I’m thankful.
That’s true hospitality. That’s home.
