Moving Into the Future: Renewing, Recycling, and Reducing

Exhaustion, uncertainty, and overwhelmed.  Those are words that resonate well with me these days.  

With our home on the market and potential buyers walking though with just a couple of hours notice, I've had to keep the counters cleared, the floors clean, and the evidence of our leaving under control.  As I take things off the walls, I patch the hanger holes and touch up the paint.  As I fill a box with the stuff of daily living, I try to rearrange the space so everything looks "normal" to a visitor.  As the boxes stack higher and wider in the garage, I try to keep the chaos in order.  It's exhausting to move!

Yet, there's the anxiety of not knowing where I'm going, of whether the house will sell before my consulting work is finished (then where would I live until it's done?!), of whether I'll have a position to move to when both are done.  There are days when I feel like I'm walking on a gang plank while blind folded; I don't know where the end of the board is, how far it is to the water, and how far I'll have to swim (tho I'm confident I can swim) before I find security.  

So much to do, so much to think about, so much unknown.  There's that interview with that church, items to mail to another church, items to upload for another church, a sermon to write for Sunday, interviews to conduct with members of the consulting church, bulletins to write, work on that dissertation (no, it's not yet accepted), yadda, yadda, yadda.  Walking is a great stress reliever, but the blisters from my new Ryka's limit that.  So I pack boxes.  

Can you find the two cats?

This afternoon the bed Dan will take to Ohio is covered in the items that have been on our walls.   I've packed the "power walls" and the family photos. What remains are the decorative items that each have significance to us as a couple: a clock given to us as a wedding gift, a framed print of celebration, original art work from Cape Cod artists, photos of our parents, mementos from our travels here and abroad, my mother's hand blown glass barometer and so much more. These are the evidence of our lives together, memories of time gone.  There is nothing on the bed that I could not live without.  There is little I would choose to dispose, however.  Memories revive us when we're exhausted, anchor us in these times of uncertainty, and steady us when we are overwhelmed.

In our nearly 30 years of marriage, we have moved together 12 times; we have moved into separate homes (doing separate and distant ministries while living a commuter marriage) four times.  This will be the fifth.  This is deja vu all over again!  As before, there are boxes all over the house as we gather what Dan will need in his "borrowed living space" in the parsonage of his interim ministry.  Once again, there are packing materials all over the house as we also pack most of our home to make a major move (when the Spirit decides to tell where to go!).  Once again our cats are feeling insecure as their favorite hiding places vanish. Once again, we struggle to devise creative meals from what exists in our refrigerator and cupboards.  These things are echoes of past experiences. 

As I wrap the protective paper and bubble wrap around each item, as it is carefully placed inside protective cardboard, as it is securely sealed with tape the memories of times behind us are neatly packaged and secured.  These will be the anchors in the days yet to come.  

Every faith community needs to move every now and again in order to be anchored in their identity as a part of the body of Christ. Every congregation needs to carefully comb through their existence and recycle or refuse the traditions, patterns, issues, and stuff of life together.  They need to handle the facets of their being and check for relevancy, quality, and depth of faith.  They need to determine and secure those things that are of value and bid farewell to those that are not.  Each member of the congregation needs to listen for the still small voice of the Spirit that calls forth the path and passion for ministry in the name of the Body of Christ.  Men will dream dreams and women will see visions.  Children will lead them into a new way of being the Church.