Maybe we should say there’s no place like where God chooses for us to be. It’s been difficult leaving Virginia where we served in a church we love with people who became life-long friends and a community that quickly felt like home. But there really is no substitute for being where God wants us to be.
Isaiah 36 records a time when Jerusalem was under attack from Assyria. An Assyrian messenger says, ”Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.” No matter how good that offer might have seemed, it wouldn’t have been the Promised Land God gave them.
There is no place like the one God has chosen for us. It might be near. It might be far. It might be easy; it might be difficult (probably some of both!). But there really is no place like the one God chooses for you.
Satan loves to make it sound like “the grass is greener on the other side” but sometimes it looks greener because it’s painted! Satan will throw fake stuff at us to try to get us to walk away from God’s best, ideas like “you’ll be happy if you just find a different husband/wife” or “that job is too difficult; find something else” even when it’s exactly where God wants us. Or lies like “it’s not worth it. You’ll never make a difference” or “today is all there is.”
Let’s be where God has us. That family. That job. That ministry. That opportunity and calling no matter how difficult it might be in the moment.