Change is Good (for me)

We are moving. In two weeks, we will be in a new house, in a new town, turning over a new leaf. God has been moving on our hearts for months for this change, and now we will be physically living it out.

When it comes to change, I will admit I'm not a fan. I like routine, with it's predictability and normalcy and comfort. Like my daily coffee-with-half-and-half-and-raw-sugar, please and thank you. So although I believe with all my heart that this move is completely God-led, I do feel my love for the familiar push back against my desire to embrace this little storm.

Recently during a thunderstorm, my five-year-old, Sam, came to me in the night seeking comfort. I hugged him and then of course he wanted to snuggle in bed with me, to which his father replied, "Go back to bed. God is our protector, He will protect you while you sleep in your bed." This, possibly followed by a prayer for Sam to trust in God, was not the answer he was hoping for.  Later that morning, I heard through the grapevine that he had sought solace with his big sister as well. But to no avail. She sent him on his way as well.

It was such a real picture of how I so often seek comfort in other things, other people even. I'm stumbling around in the middle of the storm (read: this move), perhaps in discouragement or unbelief, and I text-a-friend, or escape to the world wide web, or even (gasp) hide in the bathroom. But my heavenly Father has been wooing me back to the comfort of His presence where I can run anytime-I-need. I love that He is unchanging. I love that I can crawl right into His lap in the middle of the storm. I'm practicing it daily now, by literally crying out for His help and strength. It might be a thirty-second prayer in the bathroom or with my arms digging out wet laundry from the washing machine, but I'm doing it and I know He hears me. And guess what? Every time, without fail, the peace comes. It washes over me. It resets my heart and my eyes to be directed upon Him.

"Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word." 2 Thess. 2:16-17 ESV

                             

I am making the daily hourly choice to seek comfort in Christ and the good hope He has promised me. Eternal hope! Through the storms of life and through this move, as we gather up these last seven and a half years of our life in this house, I can take heart in his abundant grace that he freely gives me every minute I need it. And I do need it. I can't breathe without it.

I'm embracing this change now. It is so good for me.