MOVING
is a roller coaster experience, no matter how you cut it. It can be one of the most emotional moments in our lives. Especially if we’ve lived a long time in the place we call home. Where we live becomes a part of who we are. Our house, our community, our surroundings become as strong as do relationships within our family. Our identity is attached to the place and the people where we live.
Our first move came six weeks after Dixie and I were married. It was unexpected, traumatic, a life changer, but we were young and we adapted, turning it into our first holy adventure together. After this, we celebrated fifty-nine anniversaries in eleven more apartments, condominiums, and houses, some shorter in time than others, but each one a home with a new picture on the wall, a new piece of furniture, an inherited family heirloom, all leaving a life imprint. Yours and our identity is attached to where we live, where our children will grow.
IT WAS DIFFERENT FOR US
though I’m not at all sure it should be. The places we have
lived were chosen not because each was bigger, better, grander than the last.
Like the scribe of old, and like so many others before us and since, we had
promised, “Teacher, we will follow you wherever you go.” And the Teacher
replied saying, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son
of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Yet even in the face of such a life commitment, like any
homeowner, we became attached to our dwellings. They all seemed important and
they are. Yet however inviting or humble our homes may have been, we knew each
one was not our final home. Jesus said,“Let not your hearts be
troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many
rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place
for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will
take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”[2] Promises by a wandering, homeless Immigrant,
holding out a nail-pierced hand and saying, “believe in God; believe also in
me.” Is not this what the whole gospel story is about? Daring to believe is the
pathway between us and God! SO I HAVE MOVED Literally. After twenty years living on the top floor of a
low-rise downtown condo in the heart of a city I love, it was once again time
to pick up and follow the Wanderer. This time he led me to Timber Ridge at
Talus, a retirement community of some 400+ residents, 62+ years in age, and
located on Cougar Mountain in Issaquah, Washington. There are more people under
one roof here than in my boyhood hometown. Saying goodbye to one’s old home and starting new can be
bittersweet, an emotional roller coaster. If you are the adult child of aging
parents whom you believe should sell the old house and move to a new place, try
to imagine how hard this may be for them, and you’ll still fall short of fully
understanding. When we were forever young, we adapted. It’s much harder to do
when we are old. Perhaps it’s important to mention, I made my
decision to move. Saying goodbye to a home filled with memories was not forced
upon me by family members. Out of the endings and chaos from my terrible fall
on December 21, I heard the gentle voice of a loving Father, “So what is it I’ve
said to you, you don’t understand? Focus more on fewer things.” This is my
initial response. One obedient step. There will be more. MOVING is the framework for beginning new memories, building new
friendships, finding new rhythms, and preparing for more holy adventures. It
requires bringing our old life into our new life. I am active and reasonably
healthy, chairing a C3 Leaders group, continuing the homely and unpretentious
task of writing. I recently returned from hosting and co-teaching forty-six
persons on a spiritual journey through Israel and Jordan/Petra. It was my
eleventh. Interested? A new tour is being planned for May, 2020. Good friend, if you are not moving now, you will be soon
enough. Do not think of moving from, but moving to. Think it
through. Plan ahead. Ask the Wanderer to let his Light shine through you until
you arrive at “the place he has prepared for you,” and you hear him say, “Welcome
home!” [1] Matthew 8:19,20 [2] John 14:1-3
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