Moving

I just moved from Camas, Washington, to Moscow, Idaho. And in my current Bible reading I’m newly sensitive to relocation stories. Both Genesis and Exodus are all about moves. In both books God relocates people as a way to build faith. He disrupts lives by creating new needs, new values, new questions, new answers, and new relationships. Standard pathways evaporate and new ways form.

In Genesis Abraham’s move from Ur to Canaan is key. His slow progress displayed hesitant responses to God. It’s clear that idolatrous Ur wasn’t meant for him. And nothing happened when he stayed at length in Assyrian Haran. When he finally reached Canaan he connected with God, but then he moved on to Egypt where he flopped spiritually. In time, however, a profound faith emerged. So that at Mount Moriah, in Canaan, he offered his son, Isaac, as a living sacrifice to God. And while the process of going from Ur to Moriah had rough spots—an abused marriage; times of ignoring God’s words; and a surrogate son whose offspring is still competing with Abraham’s promised son—he eventually became the “father of faith.”

Later in Genesis Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, had his own relocations. First, he ran from his enraged brother, Esau, to a distant northern region of Syria for twenty years. Then he fled from his enraged father-in-law Laban and returned to Canaan. He finally settled in Hebron, Canaan. The narrative again linked his growing faith to his moves. He wrestled with God and came away with a lifelong limp, a deep faith, and a new home.

Then we read of Joseph, one of Jacob’s sons, who landed as a slave in Egypt as a result of family chaos. And the end of Genesis Abraham’s whole clan moved to Egypt. Which set up the story of Exodus where the entire nation of Israel escaped from Pharoah and Egyptian captivity. The narrative features a forty-year-long move! The generational survivors finally returned to Canaan where, as the newly settled “children of God,” they finally had a homeland.

It’s clear that God regularly moves people as a way to stir faith. Old bonds and comfortable securities evaporate when packing starts. Jesus, we recall, didn’t have a home to call his own and was perpetually in transit. God’s call for change is still active today. What’s truly important only becomes clear once a moving truck arrives, with not enough room for too much stuff.

So what’s behind my current move? I’m retired and was happily settled in my home of twenty-three years. But Dave, my friend, former student and former colleague, asked me to join him at the church he’s pastoring in Pullman, Washington. I hesitated for a year and he asked again. As did two other church members after I visited to preach for a Sunday.

I don’t mean to suggest moving lightly. But in Galatians chapter five Paul calls us to “keep in step with the Spirit.” So I asked Jesus if he was behind these calls. One of my favorite “listening-to-God” locations is Hug Point, Oregon—check it out online—where I retreat for focused Bible reading and prayer times. On the beach, with Dave’s invitation in mind, I turned to the Psalms. Then, in Psalm 71:17-18, I read, “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.” [ESV]

I certainly qualify as one with “gray hairs” and “old age.” And “another generation” fits the joint University regions of Pullman and Moscow—with more than forty thousand students in a twenty-mile range during each school year. So I came back home and called a realtor. And, by God’s grace a quick home sale and a fast new-home purchase emerged. So here I am in Moscow!

Let’s be clear. Moving, by itself, isn’t a spiritual “thing” but it does stir new questions and new felt needs. Old patterns need to be replaced with new friends, coffee shops, grocery stores, gas stations, and a host of services. It took two days to arrange for a mailbox key, an Idaho driver’s license and Idaho plates. I’ve also had to ask for moving help. I’ve had some sweet lunch meetings, crucial help in unpacking, help in getting new furnishings, and more!

All of which is grist for living life. Of constantly praying, “Lord, I need you!” And, “I need to make sound judgements and hear your priorities as I keep spending time and money!” Faith is a lively pathway to growth when old habits don’t work!

So what’s the punchline of this reflection? It’s open-ended. A key insight is this: always treasure growing in Jesus more than personal stability and security. The old cliché, that rudders only work for moving ships, is helpful. As believers, our trust in God will prosper as we live out James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”

So be sure to stay in close touch! God may have faith-building surprises in store for you.