Moving is always a journey and there are always lessons learned along the way. Adding in all the times I moved before getting married, I have moved 26 times in 47 years! That’s a lot of moving and a lot of lessons! Some lessons I admittedly learned better than others.
This particular journey has probably been one of the craziest of them all and it is not over yet.
Currently our little house is packed to the brim with furniture and boxes, some which will not be staying and most of which are not in their final resting place.
A week after moving in, we packed up for a two week trip to Louisiana leaving our son in charge of house, dog, and our newly inherited chickens. We are also playing host to special friends in the middle of their own transition. Although, they will probably run screaming from the chaos before their stay is over…
To begin this story we really need to back up to February 2017. That is when we said goodbye to one home and moved in with friends all before moving into the home we recently sold. The home originally was shared by seven people over three generations with a few more thrown in there periodically. We purchased the home because my mother was moving in with us, then our son and daughter-in-law needed to join us, and along the way we also had the opportunity to house students, friends, and more family.
There was room and God used it to bless others.
However, my mom moved out 11 months later, our middle son moved into the dorm, and our son & daughter-in-law moved into their own place after his graduation. We were left with a big house, a hefty mortgage, only 3 people roaming around the place, and us asking God, “What now?”
“What now?” turned out to be the beginning of a journey through questions, doubts, frustrations, disappointments and many lessons learned in faith and patience.
We both felt God telling us to put the house on the market in the fall instead of waiting until spring. After getting everything as ready as we could, we put it on the market in October. However, it would be February before it actually sold. Many times we questioned if we had heard him correctly and many times we asked “What now?”
Everything went smoothly on the selling end once a contract was signed. However, the buying end was not the same story. I will share that part of the journey with you in Part 2.
So what did God have to teach us during this first part of the journey?
God’s timing is not our timing
We heard God say to put the house on the market now, so we expected it to sell quickly. We had to wait 4 long months. When selling a house, 4 months seems like 4 years!
During this time, God sent me this verse. It is taken a little out of context for our situation, but I believe it speaks to God’s character.
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake…
2 Peter 3:9, NLT
God was not working on our time schedule and that was the absolute best thing for us.
Waiting is hard
Ok, we all already know this one. I guess we just needed a refresher course.
This was the period of time when doubts crept in. Did we hear him right? Should we stay? Did we get this all wrong? We each had our moments of wallowing in the mud pit, bathing ourselves in the doubts and the questions. Remembering God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness got us out of the mud pit and back on the road.
God is at work in the waiting
Even though we couldn’t see it, God was working not only to prepare the right place for us, but also preparing us for the right place.
We are having to make changes in our lifestyle, in our minds, and in our hearts. Downsizing is a big adjustment, both to your physical surroundings and your emotional state. You have to think differently, but with that also comes a different kind of freedom.
In order to fully experience what God has in store for us in this next part of our journey together, we needed to make changes on the inside. Our minds and hearts had to prepare for getting rid of the stuff we held on to, we needed to learn to communicate and work together in a different way, and we needed to shift our focus to embrace a simpler way of living.
While there have already been many lessons learned, there are still more lessons in store, hard choices to make, and a few leaps of faith to maneuver.
I hope you will join me for the next part of our story.
Until then, you may find something helpful in these previous posts:
While We Are Waiting for God to Act
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