You Better Get Movin’
June 15, 2013
You better get movin’….well at least you better if you haven’t kept pace with the 2011 Census which reports the average American will move 11.7 times in the span of their life. I’m not sure what the .7 means? An “almost move” gone bad? Whatever it means, moving is a pretty common occurrence until it hits close to home.
In our last few blogs, we have been writing about the book, “The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions”. The book contains 15 sermons exploring the difficult losses the Israelites experienced on their journey through the wilderness (I wonder how many moves the Israelites’ 40 years in the wilderness amounts to?) so that we can learn more about how to handle those journeys in our lives that involve difficult transitions or “lands between” and move to the “land of transformation”.
We have identified Cammy’s “land between” as her pending move. She is in between leaving a place that has been her home for seven years and moving to a place where her new home is still being built. And now that move is just short of a week away. And since I’m blogging this week, I would like to identify my “land between”. Here it is—my “land between” – Cammy’s pending move! She wouldn’t mind if I said that her move is harder on me than it is on her even though I haven’t packed one box, sold a home, built a home, and only moved 7 times to her 11 times. However, often moving is more difficult on the one left behind than on the one who is moving. At least that is what almost everyone tells me in their moments of intending to comfort me about Cammy’s move. I think I’m missing what is comforting about that statement but I digress…
When Cammy told me last August about her move, I was emotionally controlled for 3 minutes, okay 30 seconds, and then the tear ducts poured forth as did every reason it wasn’t a good idea for Cammy to move . I wasn’t thinking much about the impact of the move on Cammy. I quickly went to the feeling- sorry –for- self-mode and have stayed there for the better part of the last 10 months. And in so doing, I have successfully accomplished the first stage of adjustment to difficult transitions, according to the “Living in the Land Between”: Stage 1 -Complain: feel sorry for yourself.
Once I mastered that stage, I quickly entered Stage 2- Meltdown: discouragement, sadness, and agony. So in my meltdown, I did what any thinking person who is grieving would do. I googled, “What to do when your friend moves away.” And here’s what I learned:
- Plan an appropriate time to talk before the departure
- Talk about the good times you’ve had
- Tell your friend how much he or she means to you
- Make plans to stay in touch
- Make your goodbye personal
I think I’m up to step 3 as of yesterday and I better get movin’ on steps 4 and 5. Moving day’s a comin’! How about you join me next week and see how the final “so long” plays out and how Cammy’s move went and if I’ve MOVED from the “land between” to the “land of transformation”? Until then, take joy in the thought that God calls His obedient children,“friends”, and once in our hearts, He will never move away! (sv)
“14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:14-15