Moving Backwards

I moved to Bowling Green in May, not long after hearing that I would have a job there starting this fall semester. It was a perfect situation. I had a great place to live. I loved my job. Within a couple of weeks found a church that fit me perfectly. I had lots of friends my age there, fast friends. It was as if we had known each other forever. It was all a seamless transition.

I moved to Bowling Green in May, but I had only moved mentally. The physical move in August was much much different...

It took less than a half hour for a small army of my Louisville friends to load everything I owned onto the moving truck. The next day, it took my parents, one brave Western student, and myself half the day to unload it all. It was an all too stark reality, and a wake up call. I wasn't in Kansas anymore. The place I moved into was cool (an actual log cabin!), but it lacked heat, AC, and a working hot water heater. It took me nearly 3 weeks to fully unpack and put everything where I wanted it, only to be told a couple of weeks later that I would need to move out. One week after that, I was told I could stay. All of this happened again a few weeks later, but an agreement was finally reached where I could stay.

Finding a church didn't go much smoother. I visited 8 churches in my first semester in Bowling Green. The majority of them were good churches, but I just failed to make connections. Sunday quickly became the most difficult day of the week. None of the churches were the perfect fit like I had expected, or even much like my church in Louisville. Also, the young adult crowd was sparse. I was able to make a few friends, but it was slow going. I couldn't talk as deeply with them as I did with my Louisville friends, nor did I have that same bond that I was used to.

Needless to say, it has been a much tougher transition than I imagined back in May. However, I have slowly come to realize that most of that has been my fault. My thinking going into the move was backwards. Relationships cannot be microwaved, nor can a sense of home. Roots which have been growing for years cannot be quickly uprooted and regrown. However, my biggest mistake has been to focus so much on unfulfilled (and unrealistic) expectations that I have missed the blessings I do have.

When it comes down to it, God has already provided me some great friendships in Bowling Green which will continue to grow. He has also provided an awesome place to live (after some maintenance, and finding out I can stay). I also think I have found a church to call home and serve in. Oh, and I love my job (as expected). It has been a hard transition, but God has been amazingly good to me.

I've heard people say that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. I hope that isn't true. Not for me. I hope that what doesn't kill me makes me more reliant, more dependent on the God who is faithful to provide and less reliant of my limited vision on how life should be.

The picture below is my favorite from the past few months. It is a picture of some friends and I after they helped decorate my Christmas tree. It is my favorite because it reminds me of all the blessings God has provided through this time of transition.