From One Chapter to the Next

For the past several months, life has had a way of sprinting ahead and leaving me in a perpetual state of trying to catch up, all the while huffing and puffing.  (Not hard to do considering how out of shape I am lately.)  Now here I am with a brief window of opportunity to catch up just a bit while I spend the weekend out of town by myself.  I'm attending a continuing education course, so while my time away won't be restful, I am still away.  For just a few hours I can sit in this hotel room and have nothing to distract me from relaxing - no dishes to wash, no clothes to fold, no leftover paperwork to finish up, no boxes to pack.  I can sit...and be.

When I start to think about all the changes I've had in the past three months, it makes my head spin.  Sometimes I look around me and can barely remember how I got here.  I mean, I saw it all coming, and I prepared for it along the way...but I still can't always get my mind around it.

Three years and almost three months ago I moved to South Dakota.  Home.  Three years and one month later, I moved back to Kansas.  Home.

I have two homes, one just as real and true as the other.  That has been a blessing as well as a challenge.  Two homes would be much easier if they were in the same place.  Nine hours is a very complicating distance.

The magnitude of what I left behind two months ago doesn't escape me.  I had many good things, and I miss them.  Even though God used my time there to break and rebuild me, He didn't leave me unblessed.  I miss those blessings.

I miss my chatting with my girls at work.  I miss my church family.  I miss leading worship.  I miss living in a region that grows only small spiders.  I miss the town.  I miss the South Dakota license plates on my car.  I miss my best friend.

I miss my home.

But mingled in with that is the overwhelming joy of new blessings.  I have a new job that I enjoy, complete with new coworkers to chat with.  I am closer to my family and old friends.  I have a beautiful home.  I found a new church family that has welcomed me enthusiastically.  I am becoming part of a wonderful new praise team.  I am building new relationships.

I am home.

I have never felt more alive than I have these past two months.  I don't know for sure what God is doing, but I know He has changed me.  I can see what I was, and I can see what He has made me.  He has restored me, transformed me, and He is pouring so much on me now that I don't know how to receive it.