Moving Day by JoAnn Lampe

Week One--January 3-9

Scripture Reading: Gen. 1 – 13 & Ps. 1 – 3, key verse: Psalm 3: 4 – 5

Moving Day 
by JoAnn Lampe  

To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.”

Sometimes your life can feel like the ball in a pinball machine can’t it? Instead of you being in charge, there’s an unseen hand moving the ball--your life--from place to place; sometimes ringing the bell and getting points, other times losing the way and dropping you into an open hole. I think when you move from one place to another, it can feel like that. There’s always an “unseen hand” that is the catalyst for moving. It may be a job change, a life change or maybe just a need to “fix and renew.” Whatever the reason, a move is unsettling.

It wasn’t until I was forty-seven years old, that I lived in any one place longer than ten years. As a child I moved three times before I turned four: from Queens, NY, to Rochelle Park, NJ to Pompton Lakes, NJ. At nine we moved to Baldwin, NY, and at fifteen we moved back to Pompton Lakes, NJ. At eighteen, I went to college in Ashland, WI 1500 miles from my home. At twenty-one, I married and stayed in Ashland. At twenty-nine, we moved to Lumberton, NC, and at thirty-five (due to divorce) I moved to a smaller house in Lumberton.  At age thirty-seven, I moved with my 2 daughters to Concord, NC, where I’ve been for twenty years.

As a child I had no say in the decision, I only got to “go along for the ride.” The hardest thing for me was making new friends, I was shy and awkward growing up, I always waited for someone else to make the first move. As an adult, I was an active participant in the decision to move; I had to pack, make arrangements, find schools for my daughters, find new doctors, dentists, beauticians, grocery stores, etc.  During these moves, there were two constants in my life, family and fear. Family was the driving force behind the move; fear was my companion as I faced yet again new surroundings and new people.

In the very first book of the Bible, there’s a whole lot of moving going on. In chapters 1–13, I counted twelve different moves. There are many more that are not specifically recorded that take place as the family clans grow and move.

• Adam and Eve banished from the Garden of Eden (3:23)
• Cain condemned to be a restless wanderer (4:12)
• Noah from all he knows to a brand new world (7 – 8)
• The family of Noah’s grandson, Javan, spread out onto their territories (10:5)
• Nimrod, established a kingdom, moving into multiple regions (10: 10-12)
• The Canaanite clans, “scattered” (10: 18 – 19)
• The clans of Noah’s 3 sons “spread out over the earth after the flood.” (10:32)
• The inhabitants of Babel were “…scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (11:8)
• Terah, a descendent of Noah, wanted to move his grandson Lot, his son, Abram and Abram’s wife Sarai from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan, but when they got to Haran, they settled there. (11:31)
• Abram, at the Lord’s command leaves Haran for lands unknown. (12:1) Abram went from Haran to Canaan, to Negev, to Egypt, back to Negev; then “From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel…” (13:3)
• And finally, Abram ends up back in Hebron (13:8)

The one thing that was constant in all this moving was God. He banished Adam & Eve, He condemned Cain, He saved Noah, He favored the families of Shem and Japeth, sons of Noah, He scattered the inhabitants of Babel and told Abram to leave for lands unknown. Noah and Abram, both held onto their faith in God. When they were told to “pack up and move”, they did so. Could they see the bigger picture? No. But what they could see is that their God was bigger than any logistical moving problem(s) they could encounter or any new people they would meet. They knew that if they cried aloud, the LORD would answer them, and as the Psalmist wrote, they could lie down, sleep and wake again because the LORD would sustain them.

Do you fear moving in new directions? Don’t!  The LORD is faithful, yesterday, today and tomorrow. He will answer your cries and He will sustain you through any and all trials and tribulations.

JoAnn Lampe has attended Crossroads Church since November 2001. Her daughter Dana, is married to Scott and they have a son, Alex, the joy of his grandmother's life. Daughter, Sarah, is engaged to Chuck and will be married April 17, 2010. JoAnn volunteers at Wings of Eagles Ranch, loves to read and take long walks with her two dogs.