These Moving Years

Move, is what I heard.  It was October, 2021.  I didn’t know what to do, where to go, and what was happening to and in my life.  The backstory…

In January, 2020 I was to move to Charlotte, NC for work.  I enjoyed my job but didn’t necessarily want to move. I had my first grandchild, a girl. We saw each other almost every day and I could not imagine being hours away. But after discussing it with my family we came up with a plan where we’d still see each other a few times a month.  So, with keys to the new place waiting, we packed our last boxes and were ready to leave on Saturday, four days later.  That’s when we were all called in to the office and told to work from home for a week or so, surely thirty days at the most, until CoVid subsided.

Almost two years later it was time to return to in-person work.  Well I could no longer go to Charlotte.  Thank goodness I wasn’t required to anymore.  Yup, that was one of those, LOOK AT GOD, moments. I no longer had to move!  So all was good until when in October of 2021 I had a personal tragedy that shredded me in ways I didn’t know was humanly possible. Yup, it was one of those, GOD HOW COULD THIS BE? moments. On my most difficult day I did the only thing I know how. I fell to my knees (literally) and asked God what to do. I heard, “MOVE.”  “What?” I asked.  “MOVE,” I heard again.  God,  I don’t have the strength of mind, heart or body to move, so Lord, if I am hearing You, then You will have to lay a path before me.

This is what happened…

• God opened every necessary door for me to purchase a home that would serve as a sanctuary for my mind and heart. So I moved.

• I was discontented in my spirit about my place of worship for years.  I knew God was drawing me away.  Not knowing where I was to go and knowing that I had to find a community was lonely and disheartening.  “I don’t want to start over,” is what I said over and over again.  Resurrection (Easter) Sunday as my husband and I searched for a service, I prayed in the car for God to lead us somewhere.  The place we wound up, I knew, wasn’t it.  Later that day, I was asked why I didn’t attend service at New Life.  I couldn’t answer but I did say I prayed to God for direction.  “Well, this is God speaking to you through me, to come back to New Life,” is what they said next.  Shortly after hearing those words I started attending and God has since moved me to return and re-join, in community, the birthplace of my salvation, New Life.

• During this significant shift, doing life (going to concerts, ministry work, brunches with friends, etc.) as I knew it was difficult. My mind and heart needed rest so I took as much time as has been necessary, to just be. I began to hear whispers of “Focus. Focus.”  I knew God was calling my heart and hands back to the ministry work I love with a renewed heart, mind and body.

Perhaps, like me, you are on a reading plan to read your Bible in a year.  I finished Genesis today.  What caught my attention in this year’s reading is how often God told people to move.  It wasn’t by their choice.  It wasn’t according to their timing.  It wasn’t based on how much money they had saved. It was because God had a plan for the good of His creation and they, if they moved, would be blessed by their participation.

And so it is with us.  God can tell us to move at the most unexpected times and sometimes due to the most unwanted of circumstances. When we hear the call to move we may not always know where we are going and we may have to leave behind those we love so very much. That can be straight up frightening. It requires a built-up, rooted trust of God.  It’s the kind of trust that starts you packing while you’re crying.  It’s the kind of trust that keeps you stepping past whispers of folks who think you’ve lost your ever loving mind.  It’s the kind of trust that has you saying to God and yourself, “Lord, I don’t know what tomorrow looks like, but I trust You.”

And so today, after two years of all kinds of heart wrenching moves and moving, I’m here to tell you that I know God is sending me beyond the bounds I put in place. I’m taking down the self-imposed limits that have kept me from seeing the vast-lands and promises God has been speaking to me my entire life.  I’m going where God says.

What about you? Where is it God is telling you to go?  What self-imposed limits have you imposed upon yourself? 

Until next time…

Stay encouraged.

Keep the faith. ❤️

You are born to live and love well.