On my son’s birthday, we set off to help him find
an apartment, so he could move out of town to take that real job.
He’s had many jobs, during college. He worked in museum
security, did data entry for a research project, moved hay, etc. Pretty much
anything he could do to make money and still go to school. Most recently, he
worked in a shipping, printing store. In fact, the largest printing store of
its brand in the U.S. He learned a LOT about making brochures.
So, naturally, he was very excited about this new opportunity, this foray into a real career.
Outside, the wind chills were predicted to be in the teens
during the day and that night near zero. Really cold for this part of the
south. As I thought of him moving, after his brief stint at home
between his college apartment lease running out and his new venture, I was
excited for him, but my heart was a bit chilled, too,with sadness.
I went through this empty nest thing when he went to
college, and now here I was again.
June Callaway, the protagonist in my book, Home to Currahee, saw she’d reached the
point in life where missing people she loved would be a constant.
And missing people I love is a HARD constant, too. All of my
family except my husband lives somewhere else, now. It feels like I’ve come
full circle, because when I moved to this town, I came here alone with all my
family living elsewhere.
I cling to sameness,
but with God, change is what it’s all about.
Abraham could’ve said, “No, I’m comfortable right here in
Ur.”
The disciples could’ve declared, “Let’s just stay together
here in Jerusalem, and wait for Jesus to come back.”
But Abraham and the disciples as well as so many other
Biblical characters allowed God to disrupt their status quo.
God‘s fluid movements are sometimes hard to understand, but
he will often pluck us from comfortable sameness and people we love to plant us
elsewhere. Or, he will pick up people we love and move them.
Somehow, we have to allow him to do it.
If like me, you struggle with squeezing the daylights out of
familiarity, I’m here to tell you that God will persist, so It’s better to
unfurl those fingers sooner rather than later.
Like a pond with no outflow, we will become stagnant and
cease to be spiritually vibrant, if we don’t allow God to do the new thing in
our lives.
“Forget about what’s happened; don’t’ keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out!
Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in
the badlands” (Isaiah 43:18-19 The Message).