Bible Text: Lamentations 3:19-26; John 6:53-59 | Pastor: Pastor Jason Bryant | Location! Location! Location!

That’s the old real estate axiom we all know so well. It’s the reason roughly approximate houses sell for vastly different amounts. Real estate agents know this rule so they’re always pitching the value of their particular location to potential buyers.

What makes one place any more valuable than another I wonder?

Have you ever thought about that?

Sure, some spots are closer to work or come with great views but does that truly make them more valuable?

Chances are the reason people shell out so much more for location isn’t really for ease of commute or proximity to beaches. It’s something deeper, I think. I think the reason “location, location, location” is the ultimate rule of real estate is there are just some places where you find it easier to imagine yourself being happier, just in being there. As in if I can just live in New York City or Figure 8 Island or even Myers Park, then somehow, in some odd, inexplicable way, I won’t just be me…I’ll be a better version of me.

It doesn’t always work out, does it?

Most of the time we arrive at wherever it is we assumed would make us different only to discover it’s just the same ole’ us just in another place. If we move to the beach, maybe we’ll get a deeper tan but we won’t really be changed. Perhaps if we move to the Big Apple, we’ll get a taste for Laotian food which’d be hard to come by elsewhere, but we won’t be appreciably better off or it.

Every once in a while, though, that strategy works though. You get to a new location and you are different. Better even.   

It does, I promise you. But I think it only happens when you get to the right place…which is, of course, the place God wants you to be.

I spent the better part of 25 years living in Southeast Charlotte.

When the Lord called me into His ministry, I was excited to receive me first call here in North Carolina, in Mount Holly, right on Charlotte’s border.   Now, I was a tad obnoxious when younger and had come to a very uninformed and uneducated opinion about West Charlotte and Gaston County. Thankfully, my awareness of the area changed over time as I lived here and actually got to know the area.

I think those of us who’ve lived in both places would agree that even though they’re close to one another, the sides of Charlotte and over into Gaston County couldn’t be more different. This side of Charlotte and Mount Holly still exudes a small-town charm and a less frenetic pace.

Y’all I don’t think I realized how my outlook had changed until several years of living over here. After several years of living over here, I found myself back in my old stomping grounds South East Charlotte for a lunch a few months back and was amazed by what I felt.

Even sipping coffee at a Starbucks I worked at for years, I felt completely out of place. Like I was a stranger there.

Truth be told, I didn’t like my old stomping grounds on the other side of Charlotte half as much as I once did. I wanted to be back home, back here in the Mount Holly/Cook’s Community area.

Sure, there are some things here that didn’t make sense to me to begin with. There’s the man who rides his lawnmower, twice a day up and down Tuckaseegee road. God Bless Mr. John Deer and his neon orange caution sign. Goodness knows where he’s going but, I promise you this, he’s going to go there every single day. He’s constant, just like the tides.

There were, of course, some slight adjustments. I learned to prefer the taste of a Mister D’s pizza far beyond pies from the Mellow Mushroom.   Instead of the Charlotte farmer’s market, bustling with strangers and noise, I go to our own, a more personal place where I know the names of most of the folks. Heck, I even got to judge culinary competitions back in the day. Like cornbread or chili cookoffs. It was fun!

You see, once you really get to the right location, the location over time claims you as its own.