A Family Room Without A Family Is Just a Room

January 28, 10:30a

I’ve just packed up the last remnants of 82 Lowrie Blvd.— the home where we’ve painstakingly redecorated and landscaped, expanded our family, entertained hundreds of guests, hosted countless small groups, enjoyed our neighbors, made life-altering decisions, and just enjoyed living. With Trish’s natural giftedness in decorating and my hard work, we turned a beat-up house with an extreme sloped driveway and yard into a home that we loved and struggled to leave and sell.

As I slept in the empty house alone (Trish is watching the boys at her parents’ home as I pack/drive/unload in Columbus) last night (after filling a second Penske truck to take to a Columbus storage facility), I thought of all the birthday parties, small group events, sick kids, hard work in painting, tiling, landscaping, wrestling and fun play times, laughter, tears, and good and difficult conversations that have filled this house in 3.5 years. I will miss it. I’ll be honest (even though it doesn’t sound very spiritual)—I have come to love this place.

I will miss the space it provided for entertaining and playing. I will miss the satisfaction Trish and I feel when we think of what we have made this house to be. I will miss hearing Seth comment on how nice our house is and how much he enjoys living here. I will miss the trees in the backyard and watching them change through the seasons. I’ll miss our neighbors—all of whom we’ve ministered to and some who have become good friends.

It’s hard to leave. When I think of it, my heart is empty, heavy, and sad.

As I ponder the feelings and thoughts of my heart, my thoughts turn in many directions:

• Even though I’m sad to leave this place…this isn’t home. I love this house…but when my family is no longer there, it’s no longer home. I’ll miss this place…but it is just sticks and blocks. We may always miss this place, but Trish and I can make another building home. I’d rather be somewhere else, as long as we’re together and on the mission God has given us.
  
• We’ve spent so much time and money to make this house what we wanted it to be—all to enjoy it for a relatively short amount of time and barely cover our down payment when we sold it. Was it worth it? I don’t know how to answer that question. Maybe it is a question better left unanswered. But, just by asking it…I’m so thankful that God has led us to a home in our target area that doesn’t need much work. We always seek to be Kingdom focused with our lives, but by selling 82 Lowrie Blvd., I’m more determined than ever to make growing with Jesus, raising our family and building our new church my main life priorities.
  
• Why are we doing this? Why are we giving up a home we love? Why are we moving from an area where we have felt connected, supported, loved, have made good friends, and have had a fruitful ministry? As I’ve struggled through the emotions of moving and watched my family do the same, a resolve has grown even stronger in my heart. I’ve been reminded of God’s unmistakable calling on our lives—Go in faith, begin a new church, work in northeastern Franklin County. Feelings of sadness and fear have shaped even more a vision and passion for the new ministry that God has called us to. I’m praying:
  
  
  
  • God, thanks so much for Northwest Chapel who is paying our moving expenses and for Grace Church (Macedonia) and Northwest Chapel who have provided incredible help to load and unload trucks. Thanks for Trish’s parents who are allowing us to live with them until we can get into our house.
    
  • God, please help us adjust to a new home, new places, new people, and lead Seth and Trish and I to new friends and a supportive network.
    
  • God help us know how to get started. Help us lay a good foundation for a healthy church. Help us…even in our first interactions with people in Columbus to attract people to Your Truth and a relationship with you. Help us to know how to look at this move as a new opportunity to become missionaries in northeastern Franklin County.
    
  • God, help us to always focus on each other and ministry more than stuff. Help us to maximize our time with eternal priorities and limit our commitments to earthly distractions.
    
  • God, please give us 20 years somewhere. We’ve moved so much in our 10 years of marriage—help us establish ourselves, give us the privilege of putting down roots and raising our kids in a stable environment, and use us to build a healthy, reproducing, disciple-making church in the New Albany area.
    
  • God, please teach us what you want to teach us. Use us in the lives of people. Bring people to Christ directly and indirectly through us. Change us in the ways you need to make us more like what you want us to be. Help us not lose sight of why we are making these changes and the vision and calling that you have placed in our hearts.
    
  
  

So, as I say goodbye to a house and a place and process all the emotions that brings… the words of Paul (who was much more accustomed to change and sacrifice than I ever will be) ring in my ear… I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven (Philippians 3:13b-14).

God help us look back in 20 years to this move as a time where we were obedient (even in the face of difficult decisions, changes, financial sacrifices) and where we followed you to a calling where you worked to build YOUR Kingdom and one of YOUR churches for YOUR glory.