MY HOUSE AND MY RELIGION

WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT?  Well might you ask.  Can there be a connection between a house and faith.  We are not talking here about how to get to one's place of worship from one's house. Since we all know, even at a superficial level, what a house is, let's look at what 'religion' might be.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about the nature of religion.  Never talk about religion and politics, some say.  Did you know that there is no word corresponding to 'religion' in the Chinese language?  We get the word from the Latin language, where it had the meaning of the degree of commitment or devotion we display toward our most important interests.  Today, for example, we can still say that a person who is devoted to fitness attends the gymnasium 'religiously'.  Religion is about values and principles.  This can find expression in spiritual practices.  Currently, I am thinking about this in my other Blog.

I am one of those who never really settled down.  By the time I started High School, I had lived in six houses, about one house per each two years.  After my four years in theology school, I averaged one house per each three years, except for one period of thirteen years prior to my first divorce, and another period of eleven years prior to my second divorce, the first long stretch bring in Adelaide (South Australia) and the second in Portland (Oregon).  You might say that I had very little commitment to any house.

Approaching the final quarter of my life, I have given a lot of thought to the home that would be just my own.  As some of you know, I had thought to build one...a very small house of perhaps 750 square feet.

Here some of the principles or themes I have taken up as important for my life, to be expressed in my physical home:

• I can access places of beauty and interest easily
• Essential services related to shopping, medical care, and recreation can be accessed without reliance on motor transport
• The location will encourage walking and cycling
• The house will be energy efficient, particularly in the cold months
• It will not be large and it will inhibit the collection of things
• The house structure will assist sustainability
• It will be located in a small community, able to sustain itself should the economic going gets tough
• It will facilitate, even require, continual effort and work, especially gardening and carpentry
• It will constitute the framework for a healthy, active, and demanding lifestyle
• It will have neighbors
• It will always have room for family and friends who wish to visit.

I am sure there are some others.  However, you can use these to test the religion I bring to bear as I pursue my dreams of home.