A life in transition...The realization of Dreams often look very different then we expect...

Last year this time we told our very good friends in Virginia that we felt that we would be moving up there when our oldest son graduated high school... We asked for prayer and we walked forward...  In March we would tell our friends in the Charlotte area the decision that was changing the direction of our lives however  at that time it was still quite far in the future.... or so it seemed....

A life in transition has been lived since... 

Today we partook in a family tradition of ours that has us making Gingerbread houses and stacking children on top of one another and taking pictures and laughing and yelling and crying and screaming and all the "fun" of 6 children and 2 adults plus company and family celebrating this almost decade long ceremony of sorts....  I can go back and see when it was three children on a stack and move through the years until this one...

Transitioning from season to season to season...

On Monday I stood upon a property that has stolen my heart and where I dream of the future and today I stood in a place of offering communion as an Elder's wife to a church of people who are a people from the future... What?  Oh it is one of the most beautiful church vision/mission statements I have ever read... It is called the Renovatus Manifesto...  and the part I refer to is this:

  "We are people from the future. We act in fearless conviction that the rules have changed and that we are partnering with God to make that change visible. We will not be reactionary to anything or anyone, because the apocalyptic event of resurrection has already transformed the world. (Matthew 27.45-54)"  

  (To read the complete version of it you can go to :  http://pastorjonathanmartin.com/uncategorized/the-renovatus-manifesto/)

One foot upon a mountain in Virginia and one foot within a community in Charlotte....

Transitioning from season to season and place to place...

Tonight whether it has been looking at photos of my now almost 18 year old and seeing the face of him at 5.. or looking at a front yard in New Jersey to a living room in New Hampshire.. To different rental homes in Fort Mill, SC...  I have come to the place where I know seasons have come and seasons have gone.. with them dreams have grown, altered, died, resurrected and been changed... I along them....

Transition has all these affects upon a person...

Not still knowing exactly where we will have been settled into this time next year.. holding much out before the Lord I grapple with the realities that we still face... relocation issues come up quicker then I know what to do with and the reality of a life lived in transition for a full year with six more months have my heart about to faint....

None of this happening in a bubble...  it isn't ever one thing... it is the challenges of life that come all together that can cause one to need to take deep breathes....  and realize that it might all look very different then I ever thought but if I am truly trusting in the Lord as my heart desires to do then I must trust that it will be His goodness that triumphs after all...

Our  family will move.... a son will go off to college... kids will start at a new school... and life with its many twists and turns will come upon us every day..... but the things that stay the same are those things that I desire to lay a hold of....  I will live within one community while holding others in my heart ...

Transition....

I love that one of my dear friends is a Doula....

 I love the conversations we  have about transition as it pertains to child birth... having been there six times (full term) .. I remember.... breathing is essential.... in the middle of it the pain can be excruciating (so very true both in life and labor) ... at the end of it (for us) there was always a baby.... New life...

This season perhaps has been one of the longest transitions I have ever walked through ... but as I think upon it I am truly grateful....  It has taught me to understand in ways I don't know if I would without this season that principal of sojourner.. pilgrim...

As I read an article on some versus in 1 Peter, the author stated this:

 "A sojourner is a traveler who hasn't reached his destination yet. The term is applied to Abraham in Hebrews 11. In verse 9 it says, "by faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise." And in verse 13 there is this statement about him and others: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." A sojourner is a traveler who hasn't reached his final destination. Christians are sojourners. We sing in the gospel song, "this world is not our home."
The other term is pilgrim, and it has about the same significance; it means TEMPORARY VISITOR. We tarry here on earth just for a short time; our greater task is to make preparation for our final destination. We have no permanent domicile here,"

This very long season of transition.....

This very long season of transition has brought it all home....  Aspects of my affections linger in the NH mountains... in the Manhattan city streets.. in the New Jersey suburbs...  Aspects of my affections will always reside within a not so small Southern town of Fort Mill and the nearby city of Charlotte.... aspects of my affections have lived, do live and will live upon country acres.. where they say things like "Lord willing and the creek don't rise.." and the creek rising well, it actually might play a part in the reality of life...

Transitioning from place to place.. glory to glory.. strength to strength...

The disorientation of leaving one place to walk towards the unfamiliar... letting go of one shore to release and journey towards the next...

In trying to remember to breathe and understand that new life comes forth from transition.. I leave the temporary to try and grab a hold of the permanent....  this journey.. this place of in between where we walk out our lives is not  just the stage Shakespeare refers to... it is so much grander... we aren't but actors playing our parts and our roles... we are the Children of God and each step takes us forward and through this transition... this miracle.. this beauty, slash craziness, slash marvel  of life... further into Him... 

Not that I have laid a hold of the reality of that all but amidst so much "transition" a grand notion to be held out in front as a focal point is the greatest transition of all.... Focus...  besides breathing it is that one decision that propels the woman in labor through ....  

For me this moment... well,  it takes me to the song Breathe of Heaven...  Mary's song....  

A baby was born and in His birth declared the greatest transition of all.... 

Mankind which was not a people and had not been shown mercy was now to know mercy and to become His people....

I have traveled many moonless nightsCold and weary with a babe insideAnd I wonder what I've doneHoly Father, You have comeAnd chosen me now to carry Your Son
I am waiting in a silent prayerI am frightened by the load I bearIn a world as cold as stoneMust I walk this path alone?Be with me now, be with me now
Breath of Heaven, hold me togetherBe forever near me, breath of HeavenBreath of Heaven, lighten my darknessPour over me Your holiness for You are holyBreath of Heaven
Do you wonder as you watch my faceIf a wiser one should have had my place?But I offer all I amFor the mercy of Your planHelp me be strong, help me be, help me
Breath of Heaven, hold me togetherBe forever near me, breath of HeavenBreath of Heaven, lighten my darknessPour over me Your holiness for You are holy
Breath of Heaven, hold me togetherBe forever near me, breath of HeavenBreath of Heaven, lighten my darknessPour over me Your holiness for You are holyBreath of Heaven, breath of Heaven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdLwZCprtkI  ...... Breath of Heaven....................