The Present and the Future: The Human Challenge

Currently, Isaiah and I reside in a special season of remaining present whilst preparing for the future; that season humanly called transition. We are selling our home (it is on the market; please pray for the right buyer) as Isaiah graduates at the end of May. Come Summer, we'll be at the Boardwalk Chapel again--that glorious, well-known place of fellowship and evangelism we have come to love deeply. Isaiah will again serve as an Evangelism Coordinator whilst I will remain his faithful helpmeet. Come Fall, we'll land in a currently-unknown State for Isaiah to complete a year-long internship through our denomination: the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. This means that we are packing via a 2-way method. Some items are being packed up to come with us for the Summer; others are being boxed to be put into pods and later shipped to whatever state we end up in for Isaiah's internship (currently there are 2 possibilities). As I have been minimizing our items and organizing our lives, I've realized how crazy the past 9 years of marriage have been. The Lord has always provided pockets of rest (including that kind day called Sunday) for us, but there has been much transition and hardship; much of a life well-lived and perhaps a bit worn (Good thing we serve a mending God!). I can't express how glad I am to be entering into a season we have been waiting for, for years---first waiting to begin seminary, then waiting in the midst of it. We have always practiced the active waiting the Bible tells us to---worshipping and serving while we wait, but it is indeed exciting to start the leg of the journey we have long desired--that of entering into ministry. God has given Isaiah a longer route than some, and though we know it is all for our good and His glory, we are glad these 5 seminary years are coming to a close. 

Isaiah has been chatting with pastors from churches as we pack and finish our faithful present paths (he as a seminarian and library worker and I as a teacher), and we pray the Lord will guide us as He makes our path straight and clear. Isaiah has been working in the present by writing papers (many deadlines are soon approaching), loving his slightly anxious wife who dislikes change, and working with the realtor for showings of our home to proceed as we live in it. I have been working in the present by arranging our social calendars and trying to see those we love and will soon be away from, by editing and grading a million papers in order to enable a generation of proficient communicators, and by tidying in between house showings. But, we have also been striving to be faithful stewards for future items as well--Isaiah chatting with potential churches, planning sermons, reading books --me packing and packing and minimizing and minimizing and trying to imagine what a future away from family and away from teaching will look like. At this point, I've taught for a year longer than I've been married (10 years), and leaving this well-worn sweater of education is both freeing and terrifying--another comfort lost yet also a burden shed. But going into the unknown is part of the journey of faith, so I will venture in the steps of Sarai following her Abram as he follows the Lord to a yet unknown but promised land. At least, unlike Abram, we have a narrower pool of possibilities and a GPS to get us there! ;)

Well friends, that's the news. My foot bath is lowly losing its punch (aka the Epsom Salt which is helping to awaken my nerves), which means it's time to get a move on with the day. We love you all always and hope to see you in this world and in the next as we move further up and further in. 

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