I've been cleaning up files on my computer for the last few weeks (a little at a time, you know, because filing is only good in small doses....) and I came across the article I wrote for the Epworth newsletter in September 2016. It's still fitting now as we are still filtering through our own things after our move (yes, I know it's been a year, but LIFE happens, literally in our case) and have had my Grandma Verna living with us for most of a year. For a while now, Grandma has been feeling God's call to move back to her hometown of Granite City, IL and we are helping her make that a reality.
Once again, we are in the throws of transition and all its beautiful chaos. Enjoy!
September 2016 Notes from the Office
Observation: Moving is hard.
Between Jake’s grandmother’s house in Idaho (which we, Jake, his family, and myself, helped get ready to put on the market in July), my grandmother, Verna, (whom we, Jake, my family, and myself, have helped move to Fallon from the St. Louis area), and our own recent home purchase, we have been sorting, giving, throwing out, and otherwise dealing with STUFF for better than 2 months.
Luke 12:33-34 says “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Moving is valuable.
Most of the STUFF has been of no real sentimental value, therefore easy (or at least not as hard) to let go, but some things have memories attached that I (or the family I’ve been with) never want to lose: the rocking chair that rocked generations of Coval babies, the perfect china from my grandmother’s Aunt Ina (that survived almost 2,000 miles in the uhaul trailer, by the way), and molds of my first daughter’s newborn hands. In the moving process, you are forced to take stock of what is important, what genuinely adds value to your life, and what is merely taking up space, both physically and emotionally. It’s all laid out in front of you. You have to touch it.
Thinking about it now, could I have dropped all of it to follow some awesome stranger? I’d like to think so, but......I don’t know, maybe?
John 21:22 Jesus says to Peter “What is that to you? You follow me!”
Moving is a faith journey.
My grandma is pretty amazing. She moved here, leaving a community she’s been a part of for her entire life, with the faith that God would provide for her what she needs to live and to belong. Jake’s family (I guess they’re mine, too, haha) has some closure and has learned more about Grandma Belva and Grandpa Jack and their beautiful lives. My family and I have taken the leap into homeownership (home-OWE-ership?), which is pretty scary but very exciting. All of these things are challenging, but if we didn’t have the faith we do, we wouldn’t have the opportunities we have, and we definitely wouldn’t learn to “lean not on our own understanding.”
Matthew 6:31-34 says “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ‘Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
In this whole process, I’ve learned, once again, that I’m very blessed.
In His Work,
Ashlee
