Holding fast

Bolted to the wall, the new pantry:
Timo asks, "Who else has Mexican
chocolate and Asian sauces
on the same shelf?"

I'm reflecting this morning about the things we hold near and dear. There's nothing like a move to create a change in self-identity.

Yes, it's still startling and strange to be introduced as missionaries rather than professor or pastor or writer. What does that tag mean? What will it mean in the future?

We don't know. For now, we place one foot in front of the other. Letting go of the past, embracing today. We think about:

• how grateful we are for everyday things we've considered "normal."
• the security of the familiar, where we live and how our kids grew up.
• the people who partner with us. "Nothing in life is free," says Mom. Others are sacrificing to send us. THANK YOU, thank you! dear supporters.
• leaving behind our parents and children, these dear faces we'll miss and the family events we'll never attend.
• the foods we like - here and there.
• physical necessities and the overflow: how much we can live without!
• people and things we don't know yet. Indo friends. Language. Traditions. Reflexes of culture. Transportation. Living arrangements.
• the chores of relocation, here and there.
• the Joy set before us.

So many more thoughts and shifts in assumptions cross our minds. But we can let go of everything else when we hold fast to God.

What's churning through your mind today?

Read more:
*You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. Deuteronomy 13:4 ESV

*CS Lewis, after his wife's death, from A Grief Observed: "On the other hand, ‘Knock and it shall be opened.’ But does knocking mean hammering and kicking the door like a maniac? And there’s also ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ After all, you must have a capacity to receive, or even omnipotence can’t give. Perhaps your own passion temporarily destroys the capacity.

"For all sorts of mistakes are possible when you are dealing with Him. Long ago, before we were married, H. was haunted all one morning as she went about her work with the obscure sense of God (so to speak) ‘at her elbow,’ demanding her attention. And of course, not being a perfected saint, she had the feeling that it would be a question, as it usually is, of some unrepented sin or tedious duty. At last she gave in—I know how one puts it off—and faced Him. But the message was, ‘I want to give you something’ and instantly she entered into joy."