Waiting for us

Sunday morning I woke up in a panic.
The last few weeks have been jam-packed with inspections and repairmen and phone calls and appointments related to getting our house ready to sell and buying our new house. Finally, over the weekend I had time to make some progress on packing.
Box after box, I packed up the possessions we’ve collected the last 13 years. Into the boxes went tangible reminders of the memories we’ve created living here. All four kids have grown up in this house. This is the only neighborhood we’ve ever known as a family.

Friends of our kids were running in and out like usual, dodging my piles and stacks of cardboard boxes. I wanted to cry thinking how much I would miss those kids. I felt like I needed to curl up in the fetal position and act like this really wasn’t happening. By Sunday morning, my emotions were running high, and I was full of doubt.
“WHAT were we thinking?!”
“HOW can we move?!”
“What if we don’t like it? What if no one ever comes to visit us? We have a good thing going. This is so comfortable! Why can’t we just stay where we are for the rest of our lives?”
I tried to take my brain step by step through the facts that brought us to this point. We wanted to send our kids to high school in a smaller community. Our house (miraculously) sold in one day. Then there were all of the little signs along the way pointing us to our new house. My emotions were too much. None of those things seemed to matter.
We went to church that morning, and I tried to fight back my emotions to give logical answers to questions and comments about our move. Sometimes it’s hard to explain WHY you are doing something when you are taking a leap of faith. We aren’t sure why everything has happened just as it has. But we do believe God has a plan and a purpose that brought us to this place.
Then, a good friend came up to me with excitement in his voice.
During the past six months, I have been learning a lot about myself and the unique gifts God has given me. I’ve always described myself as someone who “gets bored easily.” I love coming up with ideas and starting new adventures. But after a few years of doing the same thing, I’m often ready for a change. I’ve always seen this as more of a negative quality until recently. I have been learning that there’s actually a name for this: “apostleship.” These are the people who like to get things going. They like to start things and organize things. My friend also has this gift.
“Just think!” he told me. “There are people living in (your new town) right now who are just waiting for you to move there!” He encouraged me to think of the people we are going to meet who might need to get to know us for some reason. His excitement was contagious.
His comments completely changed my way of thinking. I had been so focused on myself and all of the things we would miss, that I had not stopped to think of the new opportunities and new friends who are already there. Maybe even waiting for us to move in. Maybe even praying for the new neighbors in that house around the bend.
It’s really true no matter where you are in life. Whether you are moving or not. Every day is full of people you are going to encounter for the first time. Many of them might just be waiting for a caring person to come into their lives. Waiting for a relationship that can make a difference.
Waiting for us.