3.5 Years, 4 Zip Codes, 6 Homes

There was a time in my life that I felt pretty settled in.  I could visualize myself in 20, 30, 40 years.  I could see myself sitting in my sunny yellow bedroom book-nook reading.  I was pretty sure that life would simply carry on as it had for the previous number of years and I was pleased with that.

Then crazy things started happening.  Through various circumstances, my family realized the need to move.  I’m not going to lie, giving up what I thought was my forever home and place of stability and safety didn’t come easy.  It didn’t even come all at once.  For example, for our first move, we didn’t actually sell our house, or anything in it.  We just moved and rented it all out.  I needed the idea that I could still come back some day.  My, oh my, how I have grown!   Now, settling in to our sixth place of residence in a little over three years, I cannot say that moving becomes simple or easy but I have learned a lot. 

1.       Staying or going makes no difference.   People, things, life all change everywhere you go (or stay) no matter how hard you try to keep it the same.

2.       Saying goodbye is hard.  No way around it.

3.       Staying connected long distance is hard.  No way around it.

4.       Quit waiting.  While making long term commitments can get tricky, get involved and meet people now. Even if you only build friendships for a week, it’s a friend you’ve known for a week.

5.       Quit waiting.  Unpack all the way and make your house your home asap.  Life feels so much better when you’ve made it your own, so why spend days, weeks, months living in a place that needs your homey touch?

6.       Stuff is just stuff.  It’s not nearly as important as you think it is.  The things I clung so tightly to at first have long been sold or given away and have no bearing on my current happiness.  Twice now I have moved my family of four with what we could fit in the back of our SUV.   Not an easy thing to do, but not so unbearable either.

7.       Moving can be an exciting adventure.  New places to discover, new people to meet, new food to try!

8.       Getting frustrated that Google got it wrong while looking for a store can turn into a treasure hunt.

9.       People in different places do life differently, observe with an open mind and you might learn something.

10.   Family is everything.  Being together is worth it every time, all the time.

There’s still a whole lot of stuff that I’m still terrible at when it comes to moving and starting over, and believe me I would sure love home number 7 to stick around for a while, but I think the realization that I can be free to move and flex wherever life takes me and wherever God intends for me to be is good thing.

I would love to hear what some of my friends have learned about moving.  Any tips or perspectives that made it easier for you?

Waiting

Tell me if you have ever done this.  Honestly, have you ever combed the scripture repeatedly looking for a promise, or even a hint of a promise, of something you already know doesn’t exist but urgently and fervently search for it anyway.  A part of you just not understanding why you can’t find it or why so much of scripture even seems to speak to an entirely different idea?  It occurs to me today that I have been doing that.  Actually, maybe I’ve been doing that for a lot longer than I’d like to admit.  Then today this word comes to me.  Just one. “WAIT” And in my mind I’m exploring all of what that means.  How many of us like that word?  Seriously.  Sometimes I think it might actually qualify as a cuss word.  But somehow today the word is taking on an entirely different aura for me.  I might actually even be smiling, feeling a burden and huge weight being lifted.  You see, I feel like I’ve been “waiting” for a LONG time.  But today, I realize, while yes in the strictest sense I have been waiting, I haven’t really been waiting.  No, I’ve been filling up that waiting room time trying to push the outcome through.  I’ve been trying to find the answer, move the obstacles, begging for an earlier appointment, or at least a date that I can put my time on the calendar.  I’ve even been searching the Father’s written Word looking for an answer other than what I can see in front of me.  Surely somewhere God promises me what I want in this? 

There was a time in my life that I read Psalm 27 on an almost daily basis.  How could I have missed this last verse so entirely?  “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart.  Wait, I say on the Lord.” (New King James)

You see there comes a time when what you are doing is nothing but chasing the wind.  It makes you crazy, exhausts you, and makes you useless for even menial daily tasks, let alone the joyful life God intended for us.

This weekend I found myself giving myself permission to really enjoy the things I love, to quit trying to create answers with my own harebrained ideas.  Do you know what I realized?  Waiting doesn’t mean trying to make things happen!  There is no actual work in waiting.  Yes, I still made breakfast, lunch, and dinner, did the laundry, cleaned the bathroom, put away toys, and chased after two wily boys.  I don’t mean waiting cuts out the work in the physical sense, but in the “I have to make something happen in planning for my future” sense.  Waiting is just waiting.  Maybe even watching a show or reading book without that guilty feeling of not having accomplished anything that pushes you toward that elusive appointment.

Nope, there’s nothing I have to do to make what's coming happen.  Right now, I’m just supposed to wait.  So tonight, I’m resting in the joy of waiting. 

THANKSGIVING

While intending to write something about thankfulness, I ran across this quote:

"Praise which extends only from prosperity is closer to idolatry than thankfulness.” Dag Hammarskjold

Sort of puts a kink in my process as I try to make my Thanksgiving Day list.

You know something? Let’s be real here. Life is hard. I could make a list, and you could make a list, and our kids could each make a list. All good reasons it’s hard to keep a thankful attitude. So I memorized this verse “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” And to be honest it helped, but there was something missing. I try to remember to be thankful. I try to thank God for all the amazing things he’s done in my life. But the other stuff keeps getting in the way. It’s so much easier to think about the fact that a broken leg hurts than the fact that the rest of your body is healthy.

Then a friend said something to me a few weeks ago. She said “I stopped focusing on thanking God for the things he’s done for me and started thanking him for being good.”   You see, God’s plans and vision are so much bigger than what we could ever understand. So much of it we are not even meant to understand. If we try to change our attitude by focusing on what he has done for us, we are still focusing on OURSELVES. I think the whole point is to focus on him. HE IS GOOD BECAUSE HE IS GOD.

God is Good. Not because I have two amazing kids, my health, a house and car, or even good friends. God is good not because of what he has given me, but because of who he is. He is good because he is God.

During the month of November, many of my friends have been posting daily thanks. It’s a great idea. Thankfulness is always a good idea. But don’t forget that its quite likely that most of those things you are thankful for this year had no part of the first Thanksgiving. When everything else is stripped away we are STILL to be thankful. What for if not even for family and good friends? Be thankful that God is God and that God is Good. Sing those praises and be truly thankful.

Psalm 34:8
Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.