Monday, January 15, 2018

Following that still small voice



Its been awhile since Ive blogged.  Its not that nothing has been happening; all I can call it is a period of transition.
It reminds me of another time of transition.  In 1985, I was 23 and my good friend and I loaded up her car and headed to Florida with plans to live there.  My brother was in the Air Force and stationed just south of Miami.  We were planning to live there and have an adventure.  We did.  
There is a process that took place, however. We gave notice and quit our jobs, said good bye to family and friends, loaded up the car and with our AAA TripTik, we headed south.  Wed packed the car full of things we would need: air mattresses, toaster, hair dryer and clothes. And someone gave us a 5 pound bag of popcorn, which we could pop if we couldnt find jobs and got hungry.
I remember being very excited to move. I was leaving some pain behind me, and I was looking forward to the change in address.  And a fresh start.
We left Green Bay early in the morning, likely about 3 a.m., to get through Chicago between rush hours and we drove all day.  We would change off driving while the other one navigated. Mind you, this was way before cell phones and GPSs.  We are both very smart ladies but we must have missed geography class in high school because no one told us there were mountains between Wisconsin and Florida.  We could see the mountains in the distance for what seemed like hours until we finally were right in the middle of them.  We had talked about driving past Atlanta that day and then stop for the night.  But once we made it through Chattanooga, TN that was enough.  We were exhausted and it was time to rest.  
We stopped in a roadside hotel off the interstate somewhere before Atlanta.  I looked at the map as we were getting settled and I remember freaking out. We were not in Green Bay, we were not in the Miami area, we were in some dot in Georgia that no one knew.  Well, someone called it home but it was not MY old home and it was not MY new home.  It was just a dot and then reality hit.  What was I doing? What could I have been thinking?  Leaving the familiar behind and living some crazy dream?  I could disappear off the face of the map and no one would know. Fortunately, my friend had it more together and she helped to calm me down.  
The adventure in Florida was a year I will never forget.  Friends made, experiences to remember and a time of my life that I could be young and carefree.  
That was then, this is nowI am growing spiritually and I have been introduced to an opportunity to lead others to Christ but in new and exciting ways.  I have had to take off some things that were hindering my growth, not bad things but some things that were time consuming and needed to be pruned away. This time around, I have my friend with me, too, my Helper, the Holy Spirit and I am meeting my brother Jesus in the new location.  
When you grow you have to let go of the familiar and it can mean good bye for a time.  It may mean new friends and adventures.  It definitely means change.  As this change is occurring and I proceed forward I know that because the Lord wills it, He will equip me for it. I would like to believe I will not have a freak-out moment of not really being in one place or the other, for I now know wherever I am, He is. And every moment I am where Im supposed to be.
I am a bit nostalgic at times thinking thinking maybe I jumped the gun.  And should I have waited?  No, there is no time for regrets as the vision is clear, revival is coming to this area and I dont want to be caught napping.  I dont want to go to Heaven having played it safe.
I think of Abram and Sari, when God said go..leave this place..leave your family and all that is familiar.  Abram and Sari were not bigger than life, like some super humans, they were just like you and me.  They had fears and concerns and maybe a freak-out moment or two.  But they went.  And so will I.

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