It is always a daunting task to move anywhere. You have a pretty well planned out process usually. You sort through all the junk and either give it away or put it by the road, at times that stuff gets brought back in and finds its way on the truck or in a box. You start to pack everything away as best you can, whether you are a categories packer, a throw it all in packer, a super organized packer or disorganized packer, you try to get as much packed as possible. Then there is the logistics of transportation. Sometimes it only requires a little energy to move and other times it requires all of your being to move. Sometimes it is fast and easy, other times it is exhaustive and knocks you out for the next couple of days. You reach a point and time where you have to eventually unload and unpack. When you unload, you see everything in the way and the best way to start to figure out what to do next is to take it one box at a time. Through that process you can get overwhelmed, frustrated, and honestly just plain perplexed as to how that thing got back in the box (I thought we threw this away!).
It has been a literal moving weekend for my wife and myself. We just went through all of these processes and are still in the unpacking stages after 3 days of work. But allow me, if you will, to take this into a metaphorical moving day.
Moving on, moving through and moving past something in your life is always going to be difficult. You no doubt have probably followed these similar steps above. You take life events on a day-to-day basis and you sort or organize it mentally in a flash. You deem stuff important, not important and try to get rid of the non-important stuff. Then you move through a process of packing it away or categorizing it. Then you transport it or take a break of the heavy lifting while it settles into a nice little spot in your mind. Then, one day, seemingly without warning, maybe on a friend or a loved one you take that box out and unload it. You unpack the box that has things like hurt, frustration, guilt, anger, jealousy, greed, disdain and malice. And sometimes, you unpack a box that has something in there from the old place that you tried to get rid of. Sometimes our friends and families carry that box to the new spot for us lest we forget where we were. And all the while you find yourself overwhelmed, frustrated and honestly just plain perplexed as to how that thing got put back in a box, or maybe why.
Moving is tough; literally or metaphorically. Although if you ask me, with my experience in youth ministry, moving metaphorically is a lot tougher. We all have a propensity to want to move on, move through or move past situations in our lives that made us feel hurt, frustration, guilt, anger, jealousy, greed, disdain and malice. We all want to take that box and get rid of it once and for all. However, in order to move, I think the best process to go through is to unload all of the boxes, and unpack them one at a time. This usually happens in counseling where someone gets started and eventually they start to remember all of the things they had repressed or forgotten. What the counselor has done, and quite effectively, is asked them to go through the boxes. The counselor has asked them to unpack them. The other important thing the counselor has done has let them know that they are not going to be alone when they do unpack them. They will have help. Suddenly frustration turns into relief. Hurt, anger, malice and disdain turn into forgiveness. Guilt and greed turn into confession and eventually freedom.
Did you know that there is a God that wants this for you? He wants you to begin to unload and unpack boxes so that you can find yourself with things put where they need to go? Did you know he has been called Counselor? Did you know he has promised that when you unpack your life boxes, you will not be alone? The God we serve is a God who loves you and wants you to move to where you need to be.
So, briefly looking into the boxes you need to, may I ask one simple question? Is it time for you to move? If so, maybe you should think about taking some of the things to the Counselor (God). Maybe you need to see a real counselor; there is no shame in that. A majority of the best leaders I know have seen counselors. But no matter what, I think it might be time to move on, move through or move past that thing that has been holding you back for the last couple of years.
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Food for thought: Some of you need to get really honest with yourself. There have been boxes locked away in a storage unit that you have not looked at in a while. It will hurt to go through them, but at the end of that hurt is peace. Always worth it.
So… Is it moving day?
leadershape 