Day 19 – Issue 14

Be Still Know

John 12:24 NLT

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels – a plentiful harvest of new lives.

The process of moving house has become a rich meditation for me. The prospect of moving was initially exciting since I am in love with new experiences. But I had not prepared myself for the spiritual impact it would make. There was a part of me that had been shaped by the home I’d created and was now leaving.

One issue was the urgent need to downsize. There would be no room for the majority of our furniture, ornaments, glassware etc. Wonderfully, a couple we knew who had served in Tanzania with Bridge to Aid, a dental charity, emailed all their contacts saying they were coming home and needed furniture. Other pieces were given away to charity shops. I often reflected on Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler, ‘Sell everything and give to the poor’, albeit often through gritted teeth, and of course I didn’t sell everything, merely reduced my stuff significantly.

Throughout, my challenge was about letting go – a process of dying to what had been, however nostalgic and heart-warming – in the expectation that it created space for what was yet to be.

As more ‘stuff’ left our home, I felt a deep release within. Many of these things had a greater hold on me than I had on them. A good part of my identity was somehow located in my possessions, where it should’ve been located in God. I felt shame over some of my fine-sounding declarations on behalf of the marginalised. It was time to reflect upon whom it is God invited me to be in this, his creation.

QUESTION: Where do you draw your sense of identity and place your security?

PRAYER: Lord God, help me to find my identity and security in you, as a child of God.