Reclaimed Sanctuaries

12/30/13

And so it begins.  There is an engineer here to measure our space, we are actually leaving our home.   So much has happened here, in many ways it makes me a little sad.  My daughter and her husband met each other and lived here a while after they were married.  I met Dave while I lived here, and he moved here and we were married.  We got our little pup, so many memories here, so many of Josh.  I can see him walking to and from the back bedroom to the front door to go out and smoke, or swagger in after a night out.  Birthdays celebrated and laughter filling the rooms.  A little baby arriving home from just being born and all that followed.  Lives lived.  And so while it is difficult, it is good...it is time.

For my Lectio Divina, my phrase is "springs forth", and I am eagerly waiting to get to Vancouver, to join Dave and begin our life there.  I look forward to attending a thriving church, whether it is the mega-church we suspect will be our new church home, or another of the Lord's choosing.  So many possibilities to serve and become part of a body again. 

The thing is, it is time to leave this space, regardless.  The Lord has begun a new thing.  It can be scary to launch forward not knowing exactly where you'll land, but the Lord knows and prepares the way.

Isaiah 43:18-19,

“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹ Behold, I am doing a new thing;   

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert."

I am taking this quite literally and believe we are not to cling to this place, to consider how the past 7 years have gone.  And for this "monk in the world", who finds such comfort in the familiar, some days are harder than others in being able to be at peace with the swirling changes around me.

The desire to have a deeper walk with the Lord is present and strong.  I am almost daily seeking, knocking.  There has to be a peace that is unruffled by outward circumstances.  We know this to be true as Christians, but honestly, I have always had to work to maintain that through my Christian walk.  I want it to be my constant state, a state of total trust.  When I think of it, it seems unattainable to me, but yet the Lord said again and again not to worry, in Him we would have peace.

So the journey continues, outward and inward.  For today, the sanctuary of this apartment in downtown Grants Pass, in what used to be doctor's offices back in the day, the new has come and invaded our safe haven.  Reminding me that nothing stays the same forever...but One.