New Adventures

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. -Genesis 12:1

In the first half of my life, I've made some significant moves.  As a child, I moved with my parents from Canada to Florida.  As a young adult, I moved with my husband from Florida to Connecticut and back to Florida and finally to Lincolnton, North Carolina.  There were hardships with each move, but overall, I enjoyed the excitement of the newness: new surroundings, new friends, new job, new experiences. Once we decided to settle in North Carolina to raise a family, wanderlust faded.  It's hard enough to raise a family without picking up and starting over somewhere new every 5 years or so. There are just too many practical reasons to stay put.

Now that the kids are gone and Richard is retired, I have felt that prodding now and again... maybe back to Florida to be closer to my sisters and brother; maybe back to Canada to escape the present political climate; or perhaps somewhere in the western part of the U.S. to begin a new adventure.  But the second I start giving it even a little more serious thought, there is just NO WAY!  I can't imagine how much I would miss my kids and grandkids.  Where would I find a job that I could enjoy the way I enjoy my present job?  What about my church? My friends?  A new adventure would be exciting, but the cost is just too high now.  I have roots here that I never really had anywhere else.  I've lived in North Carolina for 31 one years!  That is over half my life!  Where has the time gone?

Abram lived in a time where family was everything.  They worked together, played together, slept together and usually lived in close proximity to one another. They often married within the family... a cousin, inlaw, niece, etc.  It wasn't a terrible thing then.  The genes were purer and it wasn't so easy to meet someone outside of the family because they often lived in communities made up of only family.

How hard it must have to pick up and leave country, family and his father's home for the unknown... "a land that I will show you," said God.  Even when I had little to hold me to a place, I needed to know where I was going and why.  Abram didn't even have that. Abram and Sarai didn't have children or grandchildren though.  That is my biggest reason for staying put.  I wonder if that made it easier for Abram... maybe they were excited to start a new life somewhere new with a vague promise from God that he would be famous and blessed. Moving can be terrifying.  But it can also be exciting.  But if we have deep roots in a place it might seem almost impossible.

Maybe God asks some other kind of great change in our lives?  A change in job or retirement; moving an ailing parent to our own home or a nursing home; taking in a grandchild when our children fail at parenting; the loss of a spouse.  Sometimes we just have no choice but to make big changes in our lives.  We can be terrified or we can be excited for a new adventure.  We can hide or we can trust God to walk with us.

God of Life's Adventures,

Help us to face each change with a sense of excitement and the knowledge that wherever we go and whatever we do, you are there. Amen.