MWP: Moving While Pregnant

It's finally moving week here at the Shore. We've got a nice collection of boxes and bags full of stuff. Red Beard will bring home more boxes from work today, too.

The living room collection.

And can I just say how grateful I am to have a thoughtful husband? Yesterday, even though he had mountains of homework to do, he took the time to help me pack. Basically, I pointed, he packed, and I labeled. And it took us less than an hour to do several boxes, matching the amount of boxes I have packed in the last couple of weeks.

=We have double the amount now. Amazing! :)

The cat is her usual helpful self.

Of course, in the process, Red Beard dropped my toothbrush, bristle side down, on the bathroom floor (yuck), and I accidentally knocked his deodorant into the toilet (whoops). At least we're even on that score.

Peace offering: He bought me a new toothbrush. :)

Moving always entails more than just packing things, too. You have things to get rid of--whether it's by throwing them away completely, donating them, or storing them for future use.

Yesterday, for example, we transported our "falling down" hutch to my folks' house for storage. (The "falling down" hutch derives it's nickname from the original time we moved it from my grandparents house to our apartment. 30 seconds into the ride, it fell out of the truck and into the street, decorating the pavement with glittering shards of broken glass from the shelves and doors. I always wanted a job as a decorator.)

A few months ago, Red Beard re-framed the doors and fitted them with chicken wire. I painted the molding on it a bright white. We spent a couple of afternoons fixing it up because we desperately needed more storage in our kitchen (and hey--we didn't want it to look dumpy).

But, even though we spent all that time fixing the hutch, we have no use for it in our new apartment. We will have plenty of storage in our new kitchen--heck, we might even have drawers big enough to hold silverware this time. So, unfortunately, the hutch had to go.

The same is true in our spiritual lives.

When God moves us to a different place--either a new church, a new ministry within the church, a new town, or sometimes just moves within our hearts--sometimes the things we used to do are no longer valid.

We need to be willing to put aside anything that God asks us to.

Let's say you used to be in charge of the children's Sunday school class at your old church. Maybe your new church already has somebody teaching in that capacity or God has simply impressed upon your heart to serve Him in a different way. You may have spent years creating lessons and you have plenty of experience, but God has something else in mind.

You need to be willing to set those former things aside, and follow where He leads you. God has to get us out of our comfort zones in order for us to grow. If we're comfortable, we're likely not relying on Him. We're trusting our own strength and our own knowledge.

Example: "If we have 5 points and a song, good posters for our youth events, and a really good praise band, we're sure to draw a bigger crowd."

Our goal isn't numbers; the church is NOT a business. If we can physically grow a church without God's involvement, what kind of church are we growing?

In a ministry setting, if you're living in a comfort zone, depending on programs or advertisements or videos or anything other than God's strength to grow your ministry, you need to move on. You need to cast aside those things which cause you to depend on your own strength and wisdom and not God's.

Scripture to Read...

1 Corinthians 1:17-21:

"For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."

I pray that we would all remember to rely on God and not on ourselves.  ~Mrs. D.