I scanned the first link and basically it seems to me that story could be summed up by the saying, "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence." So please forgive me, I don't read the whole story.

However, I am not necessarily looking for greener pastures.

You, as Messianic Christian, know the parable of the sower. We know one interpretation Yeshua gave us, that the seeds were equivalent to people. However, there is more to be learned from that parable that just that.

Another moral to the story is that each of us is like the sower. We sow seeds, which can be a metaphor for many things: children, ideas, writing, even behaviors. So then the question becomes, where do I sow what I have, such that it falls on good ground? Since obviously spending our time putting our resources to work on rocky soil, throwing them amidst thorns and such, is not the best farming strategy.

So I have that in mind…

I also keep in mind a passage Yeshua told his disciples—among which I hope you count yourself—where he says we won't have time to go through all the cities before he returns. If they don't accept our message, then move on to another.

Publishing online definitely gives me some satisfaction that I am working to feed the hungry, but I could just as well be doing it from a run-down building in a run-down town, versus a town that has such an amazingly high opinion of itself. And not just an emotional opinion of itself, but a remarkably high financial opinion of itself.

I am also reminded of another saying of Yeshua when he was really angry at some towns he went through, towns that did not accept his message. "Will you be lifted up to the skies?! NO! You will be brought down to the depths." So send me to where the humble are in their humble towns where they do humble things and I'll bring my love of gardening, and my beat-up 12-string with worn-down frets and cracked soundbox.

Dad's do have a way of seeing where their children are headed. :-) The saying "been there, done that," comes to mind.

What you say also reminds me of some experiences I've seen or heard about. People leave for the "big city" or go to college in another state. At some point they return to Podunk, USA and appreciate the aspects of it they ignored or didn't like while growing up there.

I have to admit that I view the town I grew up in, in a different light, after spending quite a few years in other places. The main problem for me though, is like California, some people found the town I grew up in to be a nice place, then everyone and his brother wanted to live there. Since the town is so old it's already built up as it's going to get. So what happened was akin to a bidding war on housing and frankly there is no way I could live where I grew up, or even near it.