On temporary housing

So we have moved cities and said good-bye to our old home, friends, and church... but we are still waiting to move into the cute little duplex in a historic Jewish neighborhood that God seemed to lead us to when we were house hunting. We're in temporary housing a neighborhood or two away. An apartment that God is using to teach me lots of things. Here are a few of them:

*We are not home yet. Because of the somewhat displaced 'homeless' feeling of temporary housing, it seemed timely to make our family memory verse “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, Jesus replied, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” -Matthew 8:20 last week. And it is good to keep in mind as our lives are ment to emulate Christ's. He didn't have a home. He didn't focus his time and energy on the perfect furniture, neighborhood, or paying off the mortgage. I want to travel light as we move through this world and not get bogged down by worldly pursuits so as to make me not useful for the Kingdom of Heaven. Yes we are a growing family and so can only travel so light, but if we want to be a serving family, that means our lives shouldn't be about our stuff and our home.

*Contentment is sweet, but not easy. Where we're living now is 1/3 the size of the home we left. That means the kids share a room and that requires more parenting in the evenings. It also means there are fewer places to be and so we spend more time together in our smaller spaces. Since my husband has our only car during the day, it also means less going and doing activities and less busyness. And since we don't know many people down here yet, there's more time with just our family. Life is smaller and more intimate. And a sweet enjoyment of each other's company is growing as we work and play in closer proximity. For me as an introvert, I have found that sacrificing the 'solitude' I could more often find in our old home, I am repaid with a sweet intimacy with my favorite people.

*Transition can bring the important things into focus. As we have left old things, but yet to fully establish ourselves in the new (house, church, etc.), we find it is a good time to contemplate how we want our new lives to be different. For example, I want to be more intentional about hosting Bible Studies with our new Church friends and gatherings for our neighbors and that's lead me to also look into 'adopting' an international student at the nearby university through International Ministries Inc. As a SAHM with two little ones and another on the way and no car, it's important to think with focus about the service I can do in the midst of the many programs I can't do.  And then it's important to do those things which means having the right priorities when setting up our new life, so it's set up for service.  That meant finding a home that's easy to host in, and a church that's close enough people would come if we host them.

So just some thoughts as Summer is a natural re-evaluation and change time for many and life often runs at a simpler pace. We can all benefit from a little 'we are not home yet' in our lives.

The "Why" behind our new "Where"

So we're moving to St. Louis.  Sudden?  It might seem so, but this is really just a step toward the vision of the future that Lucas and I have had since we were dating.

I remember the day vividly, we were sitting at his dining room table discussing the desires that God had put in our hearts and our hopes for the future.  For me that meant putting the language skills God had given me to good use and once again living somewhere outside our American "bubble" of nice stuff.  Lucas had a similar dream - to be used in a mighty way by God in another country.

As we've had more times of prayer together and conversations, God has gradually given us more pieces to the puzzle as He leads us one step at a time.  We both feel a call to do business development, tent-maker missionary work in Central America.  And for now that means that Lucas needs to gain some further experience in a technology called Drupal, which is used for building open source web sites.  This would allow him to start a small web development company, building and maintaining websites for medium and small businesses. This could be based anywhere with a good internet connection; somewhere like Central America.

So after several months of hunting and studying to become qualified for a position that would allow Lucas to gain the needed experience, a job interview in St. Louis came up.  He interviewed at 11AM and had a job offer by 2:30PM the same day!  After lots of waiting, God was moving quickly.  We drove down to St. Louis the following weekend to find an apartment and God again perfectly lead us to a duplex right in the heart of a historic Jewish neighborhood near Washington University.  What wonderful preparation for living in another culture!  And again we saw God's hand in confirming our choice for who the renters for our home would be in Bloomington.  

So now here we are, amid boxes and joyful chaos getting ready to move to the next step in the journey God has for us.  In his book Crazy Love, Francis Chen says that true faith and real Christianity is living our lives in such a way that we expect God to come through.  As we have moved forward doing that and staying close to the Lord so we can sense His will, it is amazing how He has provided "exceedingly and abundantly above what we could ever ask or think"!  We continue to walk forward with bated breath as we wait to see what else He has in store.  And we are so thankful that He is our "fortress and strength" in the midst of all this transition.

Is happiness really a good goal?

There is a phrase from Gary Thomas' book Sacred Marriage which has really stuck with me over the past few months since I've read it.  He asks "what if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?"  I think this applies to so very many more situations that marriage!  It applies to life!

Our western culture seems to have gotten it wrong.  We think the goal of life is our own happiness.  It is easy, even as a Christian, to get sucked into this mindset and think my 'calling' is all about using my gifts to the fullest to bring fulfillment and satisfaction and even honor to ME.  It's not that we don't want to honor God and help others, it's just that there's a lot of selfishness mixed up in even thoughts that we try to think rightly.

I am finding the 'monastery of motherhood' to be really good at killing some of this desire to be seen, fulfilled, comforted, and honored.  There are, of course, many supremely satisfying moments in being a stay-at-home-mother, and I know that it is a vision of fulfillment for many women to stay home with their children.  There are, however, many opportunities to serve in obscurity here in this home full of chores and children.  And right now this is my ministry.  And God is using it to grow in me the heart of a servant.

I don't think I'm all the way there yet, because I keep being taught this lesson over and again... but hopefully I'll come out better on the other side of these years.  That's his mercy in it I suppose, that there are so many years to continue the refining process in this way.  What a blessing my children are!  Not only in that they are cute and a legacy.  They are also a blessing in that they are God's chosen vehicle right now to mature me.