Transitions.
That’s been the general theme of these past few weeks.
There’s the obvious transition, of course—we just moved out of our home in Chicago, are crashing with parents, and are building enough financial support before leaving for London.
But there are also a bunch of little transitions all wrapped up in that.
For instance, Liz and I are now figuring out how to be around each other ALL THE TIME. Before, it was a treat when we were both home with a day off. But this treat becomes less special when we’re always both at home. We do love being together more, but we’re just used to having more space during the week. It’s taking some adjusting to figure out how to appreciate working together and still have the space we need.
Or daily rituals and patterns. These past couple weeks have given us many opportunities to breathe, to move slowly, to enjoy life. We have time to take regular walks, enjoying sunrises and sunsets. We have space to create much better prayer rhythms, individually and together, and spend more time with God in the Word. And we actually cook somewhat regularly! (Our Chicago friends know how rare that is.) But having this much time available, with little to no set schedule, also makes it difficult to organize our time well and set new patterns for ourselves.
And then there are transitions with people. In the midst of a big move like this, we knew we wouldn’t be able to connect with everyone as much as we had hoped. But knowing this doesn’t make it any easier to schedule your last few days with a community. Plus, we’re adding a new layer to many of our relationships as people become not just friends, but supporters of our ministry as well. We hope this deepens our friendships with people; we love it when those we know and care about are also partners with us—people who are invested in what we do, who pray for us and let us pray for them. Even though this is a good thing to explore with our friends, it can still sometimes be just a little bit weird to start these conversations.
Transitions: we’re learning to navigate and appreciate the adventures happening now, and all the changes therein. And it’s good to have this space in life to slow down each day and really prepare ourselves for the adventures ahead.
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