No place like home?

It was while I was sat in Merville, France, whilst attending a 3 day 'missioner conference' in a seminar exploring the role of the established church in mission, it was then that I started to reflect on the Wizard of Oz! I came to the conclusion that it was almost a treatise for atheism. Dorothy's transcendent 'other' and colourful place was in fact a dream. Reality was mundane, black and white. The deific wizard pronounced a fraud, hiding behind a fake mysticism and shrouded in myth. The 'prayers' of tin man, scarecrow and lion were answered by understanding that what they desired was already within them, they were self sufficient and just needed to believe more strongly in themselves. Dorothy's conclusion 'there is no place like home' an affirmation of the tangible in juxtaposition to the dream.

I love France, I have always joked that I will retire there. This conference was a great opportunity to meet people doing similar work to me, listen to some great speakers, develop ideas and also time to think, to be. For me my life now life is different because I want/need to fit running into my schedule and so I ran in France - twice.

I am also reading a book about running 'Why we run: A story of Obsession By Robin Harvie http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-We-Run-Robin-Harvie/dp/1848541767. When it comes to running he is a bit of a lunatic running 120+ miles a week. The only way he could achieve this was to catch a train, each day, 20 miles from where he lived and ran home, he had no other choice but to run home. Harvie believes that it is the arrival home that compels us, draws us like a magnet. It is the 'cold beer and hot bath' that persuade him to keep running. I am forced to ask myself questions: Which is the reality? which one is home?

I return to France soon, this time on holiday, like the end of a run is this annual holiday a reward for my year's hard work - my 'cold beer and hot bath'? My technicolor interlude? My glimpse of heaven? Or is it a reminder that life's experience are often in the mundane, hard work of day to day. My recent reading of Leviticus as part of my Disciple group suggests that God was found in the routine, the earthiness of everyday life - immanence and well as transcendence.

Maybe then my destination is not about arrival, maybe home is actually where I am, in the journeying. Of course the end of the rainbow is always just out of reach.