Hell on Earth?

Moving across the country is so much fun! Ha ha, you say! Tongue in cheek you say! Bull*%^$, you say!

Of course, we all know moving is very close to life in hell - as far as I'm concerned.

So in the spirit of this blog, let me try to make moving relate to good theology and the joie de vivre.

Okay, here we go...

First let's quickly look at a good theology of moving. God calls us to places unknown, period. This begins biblically in Genesis and ends literally in heaven, thanks be to God.

So it is with life in the Spirit. And this is actually wonderful news. For we have our Lord's own promise; Jesus said:

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (St. John 3:8).

And I'm utterly convinced that no matter how much we try to reject the Spirit and pretend to have it all together, God knows better. He knows we look busy and pretend to be settled many times just to appear to have it all together (what a joke, right?!?). Worldly wisdom, which is silly at best and downright harmful at worst, tells us to get cracking and get our own acts together! What a joke! God calls us from our own darkness into the His perpetual light, which means He's the one to whom we look, not ourselves. And He is the source of all goodness and grace, the fount of mercy and new life. And this is good theology and great news, especially when moving.

Now, let's ponder joyous living and moving. Isn't that akin to saying "fun" and "root canal" in the same sentence, you may wonder. But alas, moving is an opportunity to ponder, once again, from whence true joy doth come. Does it come from our possessions? Of course not. It only takes one move to realize that the bulk of our worldly possessions are, despite our best efforts, actually encumbrances. A second move makes us wonder why we're hanging on to all this junk. The third move confirms our suspicions: we don't even know what we have!

And it doesn't end there. What about cleaning out someone's home who's just passed away? You know.........all the kids sit around and greedily grapple to grab gobs of garbage they don't need but don't want so-in-so to have. And don't get me wrong, I love (yes, love) my stuff, though I know rust and moths will surely have a field day with it!

All in all, though, moving can lead us to great joy, from the darkness to light, if you will. It is an occasion to re-focus our energies, to cast our gaze not on things temporal, but on things eternal. Moving is a way in which we vicariously live and pray with Christ, who for our sake moved heaven and earth to call us His own.

And that, dear ones, is joyous living and good theology.

Do pray for me, a sinner.

CDW