The Next Chapter

Transitions are unequivocally revealing when it comes to the compass of one's heart. I laugh to myself when I see the transitions that God has brought Ang and me through so far in our marriage. Things do not tend to happen gradually to us - it could be argued we do it to ourselves - but I like to think our God is trying to reveal something very important in us.
Almost 3 years ago, Ang and I got married within the same month that I started a new job, opening a new store. A year (ish) later, Ang and I discovered we were pregnant with Olivia in the same week that we closed on our house - do you see a theme beginning to emerge? This time around easily trumps those though, a month ago, I found out I was getting promoted, Ang quit her job, and we sold our house within the same weekend. The interesting thing about God is that He is always preparing people for something coming down the road. This experience has been pointed to by others before it, and it will point the way to another coming down the road. The skills and knowledge we garner from one challenge will serve us very well in the next -- one could even say the current experience may be insurmountable without the abilities drawn from the prior one. This is precisely where the laughter comes in - I mean promotion, quitting, and house sold in one weekend - what is around the corner for us?

In that sense, my sense of mystery is stoked as I think about the great journey of life. I struggle to view life in any other way than as a grand story, penned long ago - a journey that we participate in and experience as it unfolds before us. When I look at my life, I find a string of stories that when strung together form The Story, My Story. I wonder what great adventure looms ahead on the horizon, and as I said before, what God is creating in me that will be essential to experiencing that journey to the fullest.

I often fail to see the adventure in the everyday...in today. My mind opens up quite easily to the distant adventure, the one that creates hope, the one that stirs a sense of anticipation - but it never quite seems like it is time for that adventure. Instead I look to the future, yet avoid ever embracing it fully and unfortunately all too often miss the adventure in today. My world seems to lack adventure altogether. In my Americanized world, my constantly climate controlled car, where variations of a mere degree or two cause indefinite fiddling, and where I grow impatient when my laptop that connects me to people all over the globe takes more than 30 seconds to boot up - I realize I am missing something or maybe losing something.

What I gain through the virtues of advancement and technology, are a loss of adventure. My existence is one that is readily defined by control and convenience. Adventure stands in juxtaposition - the very nature of adventure is to lose control, to be at risk. I think this is why I miss the mystery inherent in my story and quietly grow numb to the role I play in this grand story - the one I forgot I was living.


It may not make sense to anyone but me, but transitions are so valuable. Transitions, the changing of chapters, create a signpost, a marker along the path we are traveling. This transition has reminded me that there is much at stake in me recalling the other signposts that have come before - to string those signposts together to see a trail taking shape. In orienteering, 3 points of reference are needed for triangulation, to determine one’s current location. So, as I string together these stories (signposts) The Story begins to take shape, the veil lifts, the fog dissipates and again I remember the Grand Story that has been written. I remember that I have a part to play and I take heart in knowing that my story is not about the struggles, its not about the challenges - it is about what theme has been created and how the Great Storyteller will expound on the themes He has written into my past and my present to create a future for me.

Read more...