Take Your Time

This is what I feel like God is saying to me today. Just take your time. Why do you rush me? Why don't you take your time and enjoy the ride. Or something like that. As I once again spend time in the city I already love, I look around and honestly can't believe that I get to move here. This is an incredible place, and I really foresee this as an incredible place to raise our kids. I can't even count how many languages I hear on a daily basis here. I can't number the amount of different cultures I get to see and experience while I move about the city with the other 10 million or so each day.
I don't know where we are going to live. I don't know how we will figure that out. I don't know where my kids are going to go to school. I don't know what grocery store we are going to shop at. I don't know if I will be able to afford vacations. I am uncertain how to navigate leading a family through the midst of a complete transformation of our lives and the way we live each day. I don't even know what I don't even know.
But I am at peace. That in and of itself is pretty incredible if you stop to think about it. I don't know much about anything that is seemingly important to the outcome of our quest to follow Jesus. And 'the peace that transcends all understanding' overwhelms me. Joshua 1 has resonated in my heart this week as I face travel plans I didn't even know were coming, a beautiful wife and children that are back in MI trying to pack up our house to sell everything, and knowing I will only be in MI two days out of the next 21 or so...
You see, Joshua was following Moses' leadership, and when Moses died, he was called upon by God to lead the people across the Jordan river into the promised land. And this is what he was told:

6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

I am no Joshua, and I am not leading the vast numbers that Joshua did. Instead of the Jordan, we will cross the East River into Brooklyn. But the rest of the teaching hits me-I need to be strong. I need to be courageous. Very courageous. I need to be careful and obey God, and not be distracted by this world. I need to 'renew my heart, my soul, and my mind in the Lord', and spend time in the word day and night so I can follow Jesus. I must not be terrified by this immense task. I must be strong. I must be courageous. I must not be discouraged in the middle of events that appear discouraging. For how could I possibly be discouraged knowing "the LORD your GOd will be with you wherever you go."?

Comments

K said…
If I learned anything from Seinfeld, (and I did, I can't beat Matt at Seinfeld Scene It, but I can hold my own against him), it's that finding a great apartment in NYC is next to impossible! So you are going to have to earn your stripes before you can call yourself a true New Yorker... but then you will be called a Child of God and New Yorker... how cool will that be?
April 21, 2009 at 6:05 PM
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