I bought tickets to go to Norway yesterday. Normally I can’t wait to click on “purchase”, but yesterday I stalled. I read all the fine print. I looked for excuses not to buy them, but the price made me commit. The fact is, it seems, we are moving to Norway for a year, and I just couldn’t help but be a little sad about leaving the comfortable life we now have. But that’s what it’s like when you sign a blank paper with God and say you will follow where he leads.
True enough, I asked for this. From one of the first times I met Kory, I joked with my cousin that “someday I was going to marry that man and run off with him and live in Norway.” And it happened – almost 20 years after saying it. But life is so good now. Our house is the best. I love everything about our life. Kaleb is doing well in school. We have a groove. We are all involved in different things and feeling useful. And it’s spring – and there’s no better place to be in the spring than in the Skagit Valley with our view over the blooming tulip fields and the golden plum blossoms in our yard. Out every window is a scene I could stare at for hours. We have great neighbors. We love our church and all that we do there. Kaleb has great friends and wonderful enrichment activities. Life is good. Maybe too good. Maybe our faith needs to be stretched and we need to find God on a closer level.
After I finished some quiet time tonight I went “Bible dipping” – where I just opened up the Word and read the first thing I saw. It was in Isaiah 43 and this scripture stuck out: “This is what the Lord says- he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters… Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me and the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.” I get it. We are blessed. Norway has lost sight of the God we know. They need to hear about our God, our Savoir. They need to know people who know this God. They have lost him. The government has provided for all their needs and their need for God is no more.
But I like snuggling in bed with Kory and Kaleb in the morning. I like this time in my life. I worry that everything will change and when we come back, everything will be different. Maybe a neighbor will die or a tree will be cut down. Maybe Kaleb will be too old to snuggle and he’ll be roughed up a bit by school kids and lose his innocence. Maybe….
But God is promising a New Thing and I do know God well enough to know that a New Thing is not ever a BAD thing. So my focus will shift from one of sadness over what we are leaving, to excitement over what is yet to come.
The details will work themselves out and my worries over the fallen dollar, the high cost of living in Norway, the empty apartment we may encounter, the long dark winter… will all fade as God reveals his perfect plan because he has promised a New Thing. And I have promised to follow.
True enough, I asked for this. From one of the first times I met Kory, I joked with my cousin that “someday I was going to marry that man and run off with him and live in Norway.” And it happened – almost 20 years after saying it. But life is so good now. Our house is the best. I love everything about our life. Kaleb is doing well in school. We have a groove. We are all involved in different things and feeling useful. And it’s spring – and there’s no better place to be in the spring than in the Skagit Valley with our view over the blooming tulip fields and the golden plum blossoms in our yard. Out every window is a scene I could stare at for hours. We have great neighbors. We love our church and all that we do there. Kaleb has great friends and wonderful enrichment activities. Life is good. Maybe too good. Maybe our faith needs to be stretched and we need to find God on a closer level.
After I finished some quiet time tonight I went “Bible dipping” – where I just opened up the Word and read the first thing I saw. It was in Isaiah 43 and this scripture stuck out: “This is what the Lord says- he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters… Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me and the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.” I get it. We are blessed. Norway has lost sight of the God we know. They need to hear about our God, our Savoir. They need to know people who know this God. They have lost him. The government has provided for all their needs and their need for God is no more.
But I like snuggling in bed with Kory and Kaleb in the morning. I like this time in my life. I worry that everything will change and when we come back, everything will be different. Maybe a neighbor will die or a tree will be cut down. Maybe Kaleb will be too old to snuggle and he’ll be roughed up a bit by school kids and lose his innocence. Maybe….
But God is promising a New Thing and I do know God well enough to know that a New Thing is not ever a BAD thing. So my focus will shift from one of sadness over what we are leaving, to excitement over what is yet to come.
The details will work themselves out and my worries over the fallen dollar, the high cost of living in Norway, the empty apartment we may encounter, the long dark winter… will all fade as God reveals his perfect plan because he has promised a New Thing. And I have promised to follow.
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