Part of the blessings and curses of moving from town to town is the accumulation and subsequent mourning of dear friends. I thought that I had found a way to “beat the system.” God always has a sense of humor.
Proverbs 18:24
One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
“I’m never moving again.” It’s a pretty bold statement for me. After all in 17 years of marraige, we’ve lived in four states. We laugh because God moves us every time our church completes a building campaign. Our current church is taking a “breath” between completing one project and starting a new one. It’s on our minds, although we don’t see any definitive signs that this is coming.
The sentiment came from a heart closed. We have said goodbye to so many folks across our marriage. Some we hope to see again, but some we know we can’t see this side of Heaven. After losing one of our friends from a previous state, I decided to fix this problem. It’s final; we won’t move. Therefore, we won’t have to lose our friends and not even be able to tell them goodbye. I’m done with goodbyes.
God does, however, have a sense of humor. Our dear friends who listened to me pour my heart out over lunch announced that THEY were moving just two weeks later. You see, I can’t decide when it’s time to say goodbye. That’s just not my job.
I had been fighting this weird “disconnected” feeling with God. As a matter of fact, I was doubting my Christianity for the first time since I was seven years old. Surrendering back to God and acknowledging that he gets to be in control of whether or not we move again opened those lines of communication. I felt the connection once my roadblock of stubbornness was removed.
We are going to miss our dear friends, just as we have missed so many of you across four states. We plan to see them again, but we acknowledge that this is not up to us. God keep you safe on your journeys. I can confidently say that we’ll see each other again; I just don’t know whether it will be this side of Heaven. I sure hope that it will be. We’ll be praying as God takes you on your new journey and ever mindful that he may or may not still have destinations ahead for us.
Dear God, thank you for friends. Thank you for guidance. Thank you for allowing our friendships across the years and miles and for the reassurance that we will see our Christian friends again.