moving pains

8 years, 5 cities, 3 continents.

So much of it has been awesome.

And so much of it has been painful...the dreaded good-byes, the discombobulation of suitcase living, awkward bumbling in a new language, strange smells and stomach bugs and brushing teeth with boiled water...

But encouragement always comes. This time in the form of an article called "U-Haul Theology" sent to us by Counselor O.

Author Jim Hatch cuts to the core. We can be grouchy movers who never get over all the fabulousness we've left behind (and make sure people in the new place KNOW IT) or we can think of the One who

"came to be,
and to be in the form of a man—
to be man,
and to endure whatever might have to be endured by Eternal God when being man."

The prayer:

"Lord, this is the place you're bringing me. I don't feel at home here. But that's how you felt when you came to your own but your own did not receive you.

Yet you chose lovingly to become one with us, to take our likeness and our sorrows. Fill me with appreciation for your move to my town, this earth, your identification with me. And help me identify with this place."

U-Haul-Theology by Jim Hatch