The setting for the story of our life is changing. We’re moving. It’s not the biggest, most daring move. We’re not traveling 8,000 miles to live in Africa (as my parents did with us when I was a kid). We’re moving about 100 feet. We are buying and moving into our neighbor’s house. (Insert coveting jokes here.)
Boring?
I hope not. The small story of our family moving is about more than more space, more than moving up the hill into a little bigger house. It’s about a dream, a vision, a story our lives are telling.
Overstating it?
We’re moving because we believe the setting of the new house will allow us to thrive in our passions. We believe it will help us be and do who we are and what we are called to.
Space, the final frontier. We did not need more space. We have said, “we need more space,” and have heard others say it many times. It’s sort of true, but not really. We have more space than most people in the world and in history have had. (A good measure, I think. Especially to gauge thankfulness.) We could have made it work.
We want more space. Why?
I want to set my beautiful wife up to succeed in everything she’s called to. I believe that’s part of my job (and one I’m slowly learning to do better, I hope, by grace). Gina has some hard jobs. These are jobs she loves, feels called to, and wants to do. Jobs like cooking every day to feed five…er, six, people. Jobs like teaching the kids about birds, sums, sentences, and czars. Jobs like sewing and writing, leading and loving. The new place enables her to more easily achieve success in her work. This is the leading reason for the move, in my view. But there are others.
We want to have people over. Hospitality has been on our hearts for a long time and we want to have a space that makes that possible/easier. The place we’re moving to is not huge, by any means. But the way it’s laid out allows for a lot more room to have people in our home.
The fact that there’s more opportunity for easier hospitality figures into our plans for our children. We plan to have a lot of “home games” with their friends. We want our kid’s friends of all ages to want to come to our place and to have room to operate and have a good great time. This house gives us more of that.
The place has a small hut that I plan to use for writing. A Writer’s Hut, which Chris Yokel –outstripping all competitors– has perfectly named “The Forge.” It’s kind of a dream-come-true. (Of course, it needs some work. Much like the novel I can’t wait to return to writing when things settle a bit.)
I could go on, but you get it.
We think this place will serve to aid us in our various vocations. And that’s the point of writing a little about this.
The setting changes, the story proceeds. I could go on about our situation in particular, but I mainly just want to connect the move (an ordinary thing) with our calling and our story.
I want our decisions, under God, to connect our family to the story we’re in, both in the common themes, and the plot lines particular to us.
So, here’s to the wild, wonderful adventure of moving next door!
What’s happening in your life? What is God doing to advance the plot of your story?