Finding Home in the Midst of Change

He and his groomsmen marched to the altar with General Patton’s March playing. Shortly after, we clasped hands, bowed our heads, and prayed for the first time as two newly become one in Christ. We danced to This is Home by Switchfoot with all the laughable grace of giraffes on stilts.

Home is where the heart is. He and Jesus had my heart. We were home.

But we also weren’t home yet. We still aren’t.

You aren’t either (even if a mailbox with your name on it says otherwise!) because change is always happening.

Bekah Difelice paves a way to embrace change faithfully as she writes about the ever-evolving, temporary nature of home. A blend of memoir, essay, wit, and faith, Almost There is a poignant reflection on finding a sense of permanency and stability in a life that’s always changing.

She explains:

“Home is a lot like a poorly categorized box containing all sorts of odds and ends: the surprising and familiar, the old and new, and the bitter and sweet. It is mismatched in so many ways- not a start and end but an overlap, a tangle. We move away from it and bring it with us still.”

Opening with the milestone of moving away from home for the first time, Bekah narrates the emotions, thoughts, naivetés, and surprises most all of us face when we first pack our lives into boxes and say hello to the great unknown.

Throughout the rest of the book Bekah narrates milestones and seasons like:

• Settling into a new home
• Getting married
• Creating space for each other throughout marriage
• Finding identity when things change
• Facing grown up fears
• Building community as an adult

While speaking of these in a way that anyone can relate to, Bekah also has a unique perspective. She narrates as a young military wife. Transience is part of the trade. Needless to say, she’s spent plenty of time pondering and living out events like moving on, starting over, and knowing who you are when no one around you has a clue how to say your last name.

Vulnerable, but safe. Relatable, but unique. Fit with wisdom, but not preachy.

I assume by her inviting tone that she’s cool with all readers being on a first-name basis with her.

When her words challenge, they do so without intruding and they also soothe:

“I wonder, too, if God doesn’t use this sort of transience to draw us to Himself, if He doesn’t occasionally wring out the things we don’t want to give him, in order to expose all the ways we don’t trust him. Out come insecurity, fear, and doubt, the lies we’ve believed about ourselves and about him. Out comes the mindless religion- the empty habits and vague affections. All the feeble hooks we’ve hung our worth on, every striving part of us tumbles out until we are emptied of our own merit, of all pretenses, laid exactly as we are….”

Most 20-somethings will be able to relate to her like a good friend, but I suspect anyone in a season of transition will especially cherish Almost There.

Though I tend to slowly make my way through 14 books at a time, Almost There grabbed me and I soaked it in quickly, neglecting my other reading plans until I was through it.

I didn’t turn the final page and find myself home “yet,” but I did find myself a little steadier, a little more content with what is permanent and with the One who makes His home in my heart while I’m still on the move. Perhaps you will too.

<This review is written in exchange for a free copy of Almost There provided by Tyndale House Publishers.>

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