You Got To Move
"You got to move."
Mississippi Fred McDowell
This has become the story of my life. Or at least part of the story. It's moving time again. This will be the 4th move in 9 years. Heading back up to the great white (at least in winter) north. Many people ask why. I give them the short, sweet, to the point answer. Family issues. Doing what God has called all of us to do. Love one another sacrificially. All that jazz.
It has been a struggle as it has always been for me. But to be honest that has way more to do with my complacency, not wanting to leave my comfort zone and my selfishness more than anything real. I want to settle in, get rooted, not liking the packing up, the work involved, the saying good-bye (really see ya later for most people I associate with), the CHANGE. I want to stay in my rut. Oops! Did I really type that? Well its true. If you don't believe me ask my wife. And God.
It's kind of funny that my vocation for a few years now has been as a counselor and of course in counseling a major focus is on people's feelings. Too much of a focus if you ask me. If you didn't catch what I just wrote a few sentences back I said that my not wanting to leave was not about anything real. I don't see emotions as necessarily real. As in something concrete that I can sink my teeth into. I'm not discounting or minimizing peoples feelings. God help me if I did. I'd be the next one in line for execution. I'm really talking about my own feelings about what I want, how I want things to be and so on. I'm surely not talking about your feelings (nudge nudge, wink wink). But if the shoe fits then walk around for awhile.
In other words, it doesn't matter how I feel. Of course my "self" objects to this notion as I am writing these words. But my "self" needs to shut the heck up and mind it's own business. You are now probably wondering why am I reading the words of a schizophrenic who calls him "self" as someone other than himself. I'm glad you asked.
I am a Christian. I am a Bible believing Christian. I believe that the bible is God's way of getting our attention on Him. I believe that it is Him communicating what He pleases to communicate to mankind. I believe it is the primary source of communication from God and any other form of godly communication has to line up and not contradict the communications from God found in the Bible. I never heard a tree talk to me (told you I'm not a schizophrenic) and explain anything about God to me. I have heard many say they find God in nature not in church. I agree that nature screams the presence and creation of God but a babbling brook never told me about Jesus Christ. And my need for Him and His salvation. Or how love in it's greatest form is sacrificial; willing to lay it's life down (putting it's feelings where they belong, to the side) when it comes to matters of following Christ and loving those He has seen fit to place in our lives.
That's really why we are moving again. My wife probably sees it in a different perspective because in her there is an automatic response to her closest family to jump up and put everything else to the side when it comes to loving them. Or rescuing them, whatever you want to call it. I greatly admire this trait in her for I find in severely lacking in me. I believe it was one of the many gifts that God formed in her when He created her. When He created me he either left it out or threw like a teaspoon of it in there. For me it takes lots of prayer and effort to be as sacrificial as she is. Remember, I like my comfort zone and the rut of complacency. It's hard to be the kind of person who really likes those things and suddenly be willing to jump up at a moments notice and take charge and change just about everything in order to save someone. Which is kind of what Jesus did. In other words I see more of Him in her (and in a lot of people who aren't as lets say, "churchy" as a lot of church people). Not that those kinds of sacrificial people don't exist in the church because they sure do. I am just in awe of it when I see it in others because of my lack of it.
So I got to move. And in my selfish struggle to be sacrificial, I inevitably encounter Him. He knows what He's got on His hands with me. My responses are never a surprise to Him. He even understands my selfishness and my struggle with not being like Him. And every time what I encounter about Him always boils down to this: "will you trust Me?" With every single little and big aspect of all of this. "Will you trust Me".
And He's never surprised by the answer that inevitably comes from my heart; who else am I going to trust with my life? Me? My feelings? Another person? The government?
It's because He's communicated Himself in that Bible to me over and over and over again that I don't have any choice in any of these matters. And I'm really OK with that. For in that Bible I got to meet Him. And I get to get closer to Him every time I encounter Him in those Scriptures. And my trust in Him strengthens all the more. When He is truly encountered it changes a person, everytime. And in that encounter comes everything you need to be willing to step out of that comfort zone and be willing to put those feelings to the side and love as He loves.
So when He says you got to move, you got to move.
You got to move
You got to move
You got to move, child
You got to move
But when the Lord gets ready
You got to move
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Mississippi Fred McDowell
This has become the story of my life. Or at least part of the story. It's moving time again. This will be the 4th move in 9 years. Heading back up to the great white (at least in winter) north. Many people ask why. I give them the short, sweet, to the point answer. Family issues. Doing what God has called all of us to do. Love one another sacrificially. All that jazz.
It has been a struggle as it has always been for me. But to be honest that has way more to do with my complacency, not wanting to leave my comfort zone and my selfishness more than anything real. I want to settle in, get rooted, not liking the packing up, the work involved, the saying good-bye (really see ya later for most people I associate with), the CHANGE. I want to stay in my rut. Oops! Did I really type that? Well its true. If you don't believe me ask my wife. And God.
It's kind of funny that my vocation for a few years now has been as a counselor and of course in counseling a major focus is on people's feelings. Too much of a focus if you ask me. If you didn't catch what I just wrote a few sentences back I said that my not wanting to leave was not about anything real. I don't see emotions as necessarily real. As in something concrete that I can sink my teeth into. I'm not discounting or minimizing peoples feelings. God help me if I did. I'd be the next one in line for execution. I'm really talking about my own feelings about what I want, how I want things to be and so on. I'm surely not talking about your feelings (nudge nudge, wink wink). But if the shoe fits then walk around for awhile.
In other words, it doesn't matter how I feel. Of course my "self" objects to this notion as I am writing these words. But my "self" needs to shut the heck up and mind it's own business. You are now probably wondering why am I reading the words of a schizophrenic who calls him "self" as someone other than himself. I'm glad you asked.
I am a Christian. I am a Bible believing Christian. I believe that the bible is God's way of getting our attention on Him. I believe that it is Him communicating what He pleases to communicate to mankind. I believe it is the primary source of communication from God and any other form of godly communication has to line up and not contradict the communications from God found in the Bible. I never heard a tree talk to me (told you I'm not a schizophrenic) and explain anything about God to me. I have heard many say they find God in nature not in church. I agree that nature screams the presence and creation of God but a babbling brook never told me about Jesus Christ. And my need for Him and His salvation. Or how love in it's greatest form is sacrificial; willing to lay it's life down (putting it's feelings where they belong, to the side) when it comes to matters of following Christ and loving those He has seen fit to place in our lives.
That's really why we are moving again. My wife probably sees it in a different perspective because in her there is an automatic response to her closest family to jump up and put everything else to the side when it comes to loving them. Or rescuing them, whatever you want to call it. I greatly admire this trait in her for I find in severely lacking in me. I believe it was one of the many gifts that God formed in her when He created her. When He created me he either left it out or threw like a teaspoon of it in there. For me it takes lots of prayer and effort to be as sacrificial as she is. Remember, I like my comfort zone and the rut of complacency. It's hard to be the kind of person who really likes those things and suddenly be willing to jump up at a moments notice and take charge and change just about everything in order to save someone. Which is kind of what Jesus did. In other words I see more of Him in her (and in a lot of people who aren't as lets say, "churchy" as a lot of church people). Not that those kinds of sacrificial people don't exist in the church because they sure do. I am just in awe of it when I see it in others because of my lack of it.
So I got to move. And in my selfish struggle to be sacrificial, I inevitably encounter Him. He knows what He's got on His hands with me. My responses are never a surprise to Him. He even understands my selfishness and my struggle with not being like Him. And every time what I encounter about Him always boils down to this: "will you trust Me?" With every single little and big aspect of all of this. "Will you trust Me".
And He's never surprised by the answer that inevitably comes from my heart; who else am I going to trust with my life? Me? My feelings? Another person? The government?
It's because He's communicated Himself in that Bible to me over and over and over again that I don't have any choice in any of these matters. And I'm really OK with that. For in that Bible I got to meet Him. And I get to get closer to Him every time I encounter Him in those Scriptures. And my trust in Him strengthens all the more. When He is truly encountered it changes a person, everytime. And in that encounter comes everything you need to be willing to step out of that comfort zone and be willing to put those feelings to the side and love as He loves.
So when He says you got to move, you got to move.
You got to move
You got to move
You got to move, child
You got to move
But when the Lord gets ready
You got to move
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Jack, I am probably one of the few people who adapts easily to just about any change. I look at it as an adventure and a chance for new, exciting experiences. However, 4 times in 9 years would even be a bit much for someone like me. Leaving friends is the toughest part about moving. Yup, for me, it's about that emotional junk. Feelings, feelings, feelings...
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