Moving

I read that the moving industry is a growing business. More than a quarter of the population of this continent will move this year. People are on the move.

Why do people move?

Some are like Jonah booking passage for Tarshish – “… fleeing from the presence of the Lord.” Some are like Jacob on his way to Padan Aram, running away from mistakes. Some are like Moses, taking up ranching in Midian. Some are like Elimelech and Naomi, immigrating to Moab to escape a depressed economy at home. Some move because they start a new job. Among them all, there are many who move because they cannot face reality.

To be sure, not everybody escapes by actually moving. There are other escape routes. Some take to drinking. Some to a whirlwind of social activities. Some by accumulating money. Some by relentless intellectual pursuit. And some by gulping down pills. And there are those who stagnate, never quite facing themselves.

Moving…

Dag Hammarskjöld, the Christian Swedish statesman, wrote:  “The longest journey is the journey inward.”  Ponder on that. It’s actually quite true. There is an inward moving God-ward. Pondering on God as Father in our heart. There is no other way to meet God. But wait: God is holy and everywhere present. He is Creator. I am sinful and very small. I am creature. How can that be…?

Meeting God. It’s actually at this juncture that the Bible introduces Jesus, God’s Son, Savior! He lived among us. We meet God in his Son. Jesus entered our brokenness, our loneliness, our restlessness, our neediness. He took our plight on himself. He took our place. He once said, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”  (Matt. 8:20).

So we make our inward journey. God is not far in Jesus. He actually pursues us with his presence. He meets us in his love in our inner being, though we cannot begin to understand how that can be. So, keep moving. Deep within, meet your God as loving Father.  

In that reality, we are in a position to make decisions that lead to orderly lives, to lives well lived, to lives that contribute to the well-being of our communities.