I did it. I moved myself and all my stuff this week from the west coast to the east coast.
I sensed a calling from the Lord about seven weeks ago that I was to move to a specific city in a specific state. I was bummed because I wasn’t just I leaving the beautiful, hot, dry weather, the wonderful one-hour access to beaches, mountains, and deserts, and my friends, family, and church. I had to abandon the plans I had just started making with a friend to vacation after her training. Priorities, you know.
I had to ponder, pray, and seek the face of God and His Word on this matter. When I thought about not going, I would get a check in my spirit, and some of the other major decisions I didn’t follow up on would come to mind. It was not false guilt, it was conviction. I knew I couldn’t mess this one up, so I began making arrangements to move.
What an ordeal. The preparations were almost as bad as the trip: Give a 30-day notice. Rent a truck and retrieve all the family items only I care about. Consolidate the truck items with two storage units. Take umpteen carloads of stuff to the dumpster and several charities for donations. Shred countless bags of old mail, old checks, and old notebooks from my education. Close out accounts and inform others that I was moving. Keep my prayer support team apprised of my progress and prayer needs. Tell my former coworkers goodbye.
On the final weekend: rent a bigger truck with a trailer, load up everything including my old beater car, and leave Sunday afternoon after second service and being prayed over by my singles pastor and my closest friends.
I am so glad the Lord kept me going and got me through it. Driving over 2700 miles alone is no joke.
I know I was not completely alone, though. The Lord was with me. And my memories visited me. I got to visit the hometown where my dad was raised and where we visited once, when I was about 7 or 8. I even got to meet one of my grandmother’s good friends and next door neighbors, who’d moved there in 1965.
It still feels surreal, now that I have arrived on the east coast, gotten all my belongings into a storage unit, and met a few people.
How did I do it? I asked my own self. How did I get through all this without bursting into wailing tears, whining, complaining, and asking God why questions?
How do any of us followers of Christ get through a major transition?
There are so many kind of transitions the Lord brings us through, whether or not they were anticipated. Anything that major disrupts and causes pain, but potentially causes growth.
I discovered a few things during this journey that made this transition somewhat easier.
- The Lord began preparing me for this transition by prompting me to make certain decisions earlier this year: It is permissible to plan to go on this trip. Do not go on that trip. Obeying Him in these earlier decisions helped pave the way for the bigger decision.
- Worship and pray along the way.
- Anticipate that everything will take much longer than you thought they would.
- When you don’t think you can take another step, take another step. Keep going till you get everything done.
- Enlist the help of as many friends as you can to pray and propel you into your transition and your future.
- Keep your eyes and ears wide open for spiritual warfare and attacks. The devil will not take your obedience lying down! There was a lot of unseasonal rain. I was also
attacked by a psychotic young woman the first night of my travels. She punched me in the face as she tried to steal my truck keys because of her delusion that her best friend was locked up in my truck. The Lord had predesignated a police car to be across the street, who heard me screaming bloody murder and immediately came to my rescue. - Research as much as you need to, to prepare for the transition, but do not let your findings deter you from obeying God’s will. Let it inform what you are walking into.
- Enjoy the scenery. Reflect and summarize as you continue to walk through the actual transition. I began to understand why my dad’s favorite color was green when I saw how beautiful, lush, and green his hometown was.
- Document your progress and process your feelings using tools like your devices, healthy music, coloring, keeping your life as “normal” as possible, and journaling.
- Remember, you’re not running away from something negative. You are walking toward something positive.
