"Almost Heaven, (west) Virginia"
Let’s start by saying Take Me Home, Country Roads is actually about western Virginia. That is one of the many things I have learned in the past 5 months of East Coast living.
It has been an ideal ride, this part of my journey. Being in western Virginia is more beautiful than my soul could imagine. I am thankful, to say the least.
My heart really tunes itself into wherever I am, I have learned that. I remember, that as a child, how vacations would cause tears upon driving away, back to what I knew as home. I’ve loved every place I’ve stepped foot in for a long time.
And love can be difficult to manage. It’s draining and it calls to your depths. What once was easy to ignore becomes what you can’t seem to get away from. I imagine this is why we should manage our affections ever so closely.
Most of all I find myself content.
There are many things that have not operated as I had planned or thought out, but I have come to a stillness of this is okay, and it’s growth-filled. Perhaps, I do wish at times that perfection was available, but that is foolishness. All I can obtain in this life is what I trust God for. That is it.
If I grasp at all the things that I wish I had, or if I demand that things be changed around me, or if I walk around wishing for newness I will find nothing. There will be heartbrokenness and consistent defeat.
It’s not that Virginia has brought this to me or helped me learn this. I believe that trust develops over time. And where my trust in God began, has developed into the moments that I find myself in today.
This isn’t to sadden anyone or make anyone feel as though they can’t reach contentment.
The fact is, contentment does start from those first moments of trusting God. It begins small and in need of care. Stewarding the contentment you have in your life, no matter how established, fruitful, or seed-like is what will bring more in the years, days, and moments to come.
Let your heart be a place that is ruled by trust. Take the contentment and let it ride through the next moments of cruelty, poverty, neglect, etc. Because in this place is where it is planted, watered, and harvested.