Solid Rock in a World of Disruption

It is 3:30 in the morning and I am wide awake. I went to sleep at 10:00 pm and slept well
through the night. Now I am up and wondering where to start with all that I have to do. My
small world is disrupted and in disarray. Since last summer I have been going through 30 or
so boxes of personal and family memorabilia that I had stored in a small U Haul storage unit
for the past twelve years. For the past six weeks my stuff covered the floor of my small stu-
dio apartment as I went through boxes. My family heritage and even my own personal life
were strewn around me. I felt a good measure of relief and order when two friends helped
me move 14 boxes of family and personal memories out of my room and back into storage.

In just a few hours, just after Morning Watch, some guys will come and take away my bed,
desk ,and a chair that I've donated to a Christian ministry. Later today I will move into dear
friends' home for several days before my departure for Scotland. Again I am in transition
with no place to call my own. My little studio apartment has been the place where I have
met with God for over a year. It has become a special, even a holy place for me. My home
is being taken apart and I am sad. It is an end of an era that has been very precious to me,
even though I  didn't see it that way earlier last year. In a way it has been a wilderness exper-
ience for me. I never had a lot, but I always had enough.

I have gone through nine significant moves since 2006. It seemed that I was always packing
up and moving on to someplace else, especially during the first three years. For at least two
years, 2009 and 2010, I had a more stable and secure place to stay. Even then I always knew
it was temporary and that sooner or later I would be moving on. But moving to the pastoral
position at St Fergus Parish Church feels positively different. It is an end of a long process
that the Lord has put me through. I have received the orders for which I had been waiting. I
am no longer ordered to stand down, but to go into action. And I am ready and eager to do
that.

I have experienced disruption and disarray the past nine years, especially the last six. At times
I flailed and floundered, grasping for anything that would give me security. But over that time
I learned over and over that even though situations and circumstances change, the LORD God
is a fortress and high rock upon which we can stand. More specifically, Jesus is the solid rock
upon which we stand in a world full of disruption and disarray. Our settings and situations may
change, but the LORD never does. I am grateful to God for teaching me that, but I have the feel-
ing that I will quickly forget and have to learn it all over again. May we all learn that Jesus is our
solid rock in a world of disruption.

Blessings to you and yours,