As I was reading “Far from Home,” a study on migration in the Bible, I was struck by the concept that migration starts with hunger. In the Bible we see this clearly as families such as Josheph's come to Egypt because of the famine in Canaan. Or the story of Naomi's family moving from Israel to Moab because of the need for food. And then back to Israel. In recent history we have seen an influx of migrant children coming to the US because of the desire or hunger for a better life by their parents. And the same is happening in Europe.
The world is on the move. God is on the move. And we are all moving spiritually as well.
Did you know that 1 in 30 people are migrants? We have seen an increase of world migration in the last decade with around 281 million migrants (see https://worldmigrationreport.iom.int/wmr-2022-interactive/). Acts 17:26-27 says that God puts people in places that they might seek Him. God knows not only the number of hairs on your head but also where and when you will live. What will cause you to cry out to know Him better?
Pedro and I just began to kick around the idea of Spiritual Migration. Spiritual Migration is the concept that people change their religion in order to satisfy their spiritual hunger. Many Christians have become Muslims, or Buddhists. And vice versa. Within Christianity, people change churches, or denominations because they are hungry for something more, or something else. A new view of God, perhaps. Or a new attitude toward God. A better understanding of who God the Father is. Or who we really are in Jesus. Or people want to experience God, not just learn about Him. People everywhere are searching for the Truth. Many are still on that journey.
Pedro defines himself as a spiritual migrant. As a young child in Bolivia his family changed from cynical and skeptical, that is non-religious, to Catholic briefly, and then Mormon. However, these religious activities did not satisfy Pedro's hunger for truth. Later on he migrated to Hare Krishna and Marxism while a student at the university. When Pedro came to the United States to pursue his Master's degree, he discovered that the Truth is Jesus. A family had invited him to Thanksgiving dinner and he felt loved and saw how other people loved one another. He was later led to pray and receive Jesus into his heart by another migrant, Joe Sabounji, who was born in Aleppo, Syria, and became a church Minister in Boston.
How can we be the salt that creates thirst and hunger for the Truth? Do people feel free to migrate spiritually? Or do people feel the pressure to conform, to comply, to stay within the confines of the familiar, the known, the safe? How can we encourage each other to seek out the truth instead of living under impositions? Do people fear that they aren't going to get it right? We know that the truth will prevail, so we can be confident because we know that Jesus is the Truth and He always wins. And He wins because He loves, He satisfies, He nourishes, He comes to us, He gives Himself for us.
Are you hungry enough to start your own journey of Spiritual Migration?
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