Moving Ahead and Looking Back: Day 1

“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done…”.

Revelation 22:20

Winter is not an easy time for a move. While your neighbors are drawing closer to the warmth of the fire, you are packing up the andirons and rolling up the hearth rug. As the light from neighboring homes glows warmly on a bleak winter afternoon, you are busy divesting, not nesting, as everything that has made your house a home is taken down and packed up. Your neighbors’ doors are closed tightly against the winter wind, but yours is propped open to accommodate the parade of boxes transported out your door to the waiting moving truck. No, winter is not an easy time for a move.

On January 10 (cold enough for you?), we left the place and the home where we lived for over a decade. We moved there after my husband’s early retirement with a five year plan to enjoy a different part of the country, then move on to our permanent destination. An economic downturn, a constricted housing market—and the plan of God—kept us there another five plus years. Years in which we experienced family crises and milestones, as well as times of waiting, even discouragement. Then, when we least expected it, we had a buyer with both cash and a robust exit plan for us. We said good-bye to a beautiful but remote area and many wonderful friends in order to move closer to family and conveniences that would one day be necessities.

I have learned a little bit about waiting. During that period more than one friend asked if we were discouraged or had changed our mind about moving. I would reply that my job was to keep the house clean and to find the best real estate professional I could, then listen to their advice. It was God’s job to sell our home. I think this is difficult, but worthy advice: most problems occur when we become confused about what our responsibility is and start tinkering with the timeline.  

One of the last promises we find in Scripture is Jesus assurance that He is coming back “soon,” but that word doesn’t mean in the immediate future. It means that when the time God has ordained (Acts 1:7) for Christ’s return comes, nothing and no one will stop it or slow it down. If you are waiting for the Second Coming or waiting for anything at all, this is your model.

  

Nancy Shirah