“Oftentimes, if you decide to embrace the tension and move forward, this is your first battle. To move forward, we can’t keep everything we always had. We have to pick what to take, what is absolutely necessary, and leave behind some things that have been important to us. What used to provide comfort may now only take up space or be a hindrance to getting where we need to go.”

These words, from The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay have stayed with me during the days since I read them. One the literal level the author was discussing a recent move to Colorado from Oregon, in which he discovered there just wasn’t room enough in the moving truck for all his possessions. On that level alone this quote has convicted me. David and I have noticed that we are often happier in a hotel room or in our Lexington condo, which has just the few things we need to live comfortably in the space while we are up there. When we return home, our house feels weighed down with the baggage of the years. As we pass through the milestones of our lives, friends and family along the way give us things, things that they believe are important or apply so well to a particular phase of life. For instance, nearly all of us have wedding china but we rarely use it. I have tablecloths that fit my first dining room table, but not the larger one that I like to use now. And don’t get me started on the books that were significant to me, but which I no longer read. We accumulate these things because they were important - they truly were. But now I am faced with the tension of realizing that if I want to move forward in our life — if I want to feel at home in my own home — I need to let go of things that used to be important.

This also applies on a metaphorical level. In ministry — friendships and the intangible activities that make up our lives — we need to edit our choices as well. We need to be able to let go of things we have “always done” in order to make room for the things God is calling us to do right now. The life God is calling me to — in this time and place — takes time. I will not be able to spend that time if I don’t make different choices than I have in the past.

So I guess my question to us all is this: are the choices we are making day in and day out consistent with the calling God has placed on our lives at this season in our journey?

One final quote from The Tangible Kingdom (for today, anyway!) really reminded me of my priorities.

“When I walk into Starbucks, I don’t think about coffee. That’s predetermined . . . tall black Americano. I ponder the lives of everyone I see. I wonder about their spiritual journeys, their highs and lows . . . and where they look for direction in their search. My initial assumption is that in any room full of people, very few know Christ. I ask myself how I could get into their lives or how a conversation might begin. I don’t see them as projects — that wouldn’t go very far. I see them as sould the Lord loves who simply haven’t seen or heard an accurate message about the Kingdom. I always feel confident that I may one day be talking with them about life and God. Oddly enough, this seems to happen all the time.”