Moving is uncomfortable.
Since Cliff and I came together, we counted a predicted minimum of 9 moves between the 2 of us in our first 4 years of marriage. So far, we’ve covered 4.
Moving is time-consuming. It means agonizing mess, wearisome clean-ups and endless labeling.
It’s emotionally wearisome. It means facing the stresses of packing and unpacking, the uncertainty of the next season, painful goodbyes and new hellos.
When we left our first home in Singapore as newlyweds to Africa, I wept. There would be no home as special as this, I said to myself. But when we reached Africa, how amazed were we by the incredible wildlife surrounding our home atop a hill.
Having to move again back to Singapore after just a brief year, I then thought, surely nothing would top the beauty of our African abode. The whole idea of uprooting and moving again, soon after we had settled, was torturous.
Yet when we moved again, God blew our minds once more.
Looking at our new home, I can only marvel at the power and providence of God. One morning, as we had breakfast at home overlooking the swaying trees with a turquoise kingfisher glistening in the foreground, I was overwhelmed.
I could not imagine- that just a year ago, how excruciatingly hard it was to tear away from Singapore to Uganda. Yet, just months ago, we did not want to leave Africa back to Singapore.
“God,” I had prayed while in Africa, “If it’s Your will, then show us you do mean for us to move again.”
Weeks later, bulldozing through a series of institutional roadblocks, God cut through several red tapes and opened doors for me to serve at the School of Public Health in the Department of Global Health back in the heart of Asia, to empower students in overseas community involvement projects, as part of serving out the remaining time of my bond as a medical doctor. It was a miracle and a new mission assignment in itself, but where we would next stay in Singapore worried me.
Since work was far away from church where Cliff would serve at, I remember praying a simple prayer, as a child would to her father, “God, can we stay in between church and my workplace? Could You let us stay near Nature please, for we’ll miss Africa so much. “
It was not a grand, verbose prayer.
Counting exactly 7 train stations from my workplace and church, Marymount was where I asked God for a home, without even really knowing what that neighborhood was like. Several housing agents informed us, “For your budget, you have to be practical. Look at unpopular neighborhoods- anywhere but Marymount.”
As weeks went by, we had various rental offers in obscure places, only to be told, “Sorry we can’t wait for you to return from Africa to view the place.”
Each time a door closed, Cliff would remind me, “It’s because God has a different place for us to move to.”
Imagine our shock when we were informed we had a rent-free house to house-sit for in Marymount when we were back. Imagine the joy we had when we discovered it was next to nature, as we had prayed. Imagine our gratitude when every piece of furniture and appliance in the house came in from strangers and friends to help us with our move.
Moving is uncomfortable. It is draining and tedious. It can even feel unproductive.
Yet, moving offers us the opportunity to prune out the excess in our lives. It offers us the chance to throw out the junk and distill the essential.
Our first major move from Singapore to Uganda took us 3 months to pack and unpack. Our most recent one took us 3 weeks, with us taking only 3 hours to pack everything we owned in Uganda into 4 neat suitcases.
Moving gives us the opportunity to exercise our faith, and to see the fruition of prayer birthed through travail. While it might feel like “dead time”, moving can in fact accelerate us into new frontiers, making us more fruitful than ever.
Since we moved back, God has opened numerous doors for us to speak at various platforms, to impact communities in ways we dared not dream.
Moving gives us the opportunity to hold loosely to what we can see, to have a firmer grasp over what we cannot see- what is of eternal value. It diminishes our desire for what cannot satisfy us, and deepens our longing for what can.
The more we moved, the less we had. The less we had, the lighter we felt, and the more we found joy reveling in the simple things in life.
The truth is this- when we move with God when God tells us to, He brings us to new heights we would never attain, when we held onto our old walls of comfort.
My question to you is this- are you moving on with God, or are you stuck where you are because of fear?
The quicksand of fear and uncertainty is a familiar friend to me. But I’ve learnt, that the longer you stay put, the faster you’ll find yourself sinking in panic and consternation.
When God moves, move on with Him. As my Senior Pastor puts it- metamorphosize, but don’t fossilize.
Moving is uncomfortable, but it offers us the grand opportunity to take the biggest leaps of faith in our lives.
So let go, move on with God. Let Him surprise you with the biggest adventure of your life.
Because at the end of all our moving, when we’re weary and exhausted, how joyful and ecstatic will we be to find ourselves, after our last move, in our eternal abode in heaven, where we can finally call Home.
Our new home
View from Mac Ritchie Nature Reserve near home