This was not a part of the plan.  Why is it always more horrible than I imagine: smaller, dirtier?   Sigh.  Live more simply so that others may simply live.  I have nothing of real value anyway.  Sentimental junk, that’s all—kids’ pictures mostly.  We do have 2 ½ rooms of one-year-old furniture.  I’m so emotionally attached to my stuff!  As Jim describes it, I feel “frozen” in the moving process. What do I bring, store, give away, and throw away?

After 21 moves, you would think I would be skillful, confident, a moving professional, and a moving mentor.  Nope, I find myself going from one room to the other, unable to finish one project before starting another.  Jim says I get this way with each move.  Moody too.  I become anxious, like a bird stirred off her nest.  Only my next nest will have no babies in it.  He is very sympathetic.  He’s very strong, gentle, and protective as we pack.  I feel the pulling of two mottoes.  Firstly, simplify smaller home, less junk, and more time to give to the poor.  Secondly, I am a sentimental middle-aged empty nester, and if my junk gives me comfort and we have room to store it, I should keep it.

My husband, so Type A, notorious for doing the impossible and not being deterred by facts, has a tender spot for his type whatever wife; afraid of the possible, paralyzed by the probable.  Together, we have endured great hardship for over twenty years, both physical and emotional.  Some have been self-inflicted, some not.  At some point in time, we each decided to find God (in everything), know him (somehow), and honor him (whatever that means).  In our journey together, God has made us into a good team.  That is – it is better together than apart.

The whole process of making us into a team seemed disjointed, a sideshow in the real stuff of ministry. But I would rather think of it as God’s slow, deliberate plan to transform ordinary, flawed individuals into his instruments of healing love. It’s sad when married couples give up too soon and miss out on the rewards of a marriage God can build.