"Moving Is Annoying"

I am sure there are people who like to move. However, I am not sure I have even met someone with such a disposition. I certainly am not one of them. It is not so much the end result that bothers me as much as it is the process that you go through that annoys me. So right now I am in a state of being annoyed. I am moving. I am packing up to go to a retirement community.

People come up to me and boost my ego by saying, “You don’t seem old enough to be moving to ‘the home’.” Unfortunately the ego boost vaporizes when I realize their statement is more about my wife whose appearance and activities make me look younger – she looks like our daughter’s sister, and she is still actively involved in a career as a lacrosse official. A second dose of reality sets in when I realize in a few short years I won’t hear statements like that being made about me anymore!

I have moved 8 times in my life (4 times in the 1^st 4 years of our marriage), so you would think moving should not be such an irritation. What is it about moving that annoys me? Perhaps it is the sorting through stuff and coming to the realization that I have accumulated way more than I need and use. This move is from a house where we have lived the longest – about 18 years. It is amazing how much stuff one accumulates without even intending to do so. I have come across items that I did not even know I had. Worse yet, I have come across things in the attic that have left me wondering what they are, how they could possibly be used, and if they are really mine!

Another annoying thing is deciding about that which needs to be thrown away. I pick up an item I have chosen to discard and suddenly have an Antiques Road Show flash. I convince myself I would be foolish to discard this item that is probably worth a fortune. Then again, I struggle with how many aluminum coffee cans I “need” to keep to store things on shelves at our new house. Right now I probably have enough coffee cans to take to the recycling center for them to melt down to make a new car!

Sentimentality can be bothersome too. I come across pictures of the past that conjure up memories of summer vacations on the coast of Maine and portray our children about the same size of what our grandkids are today. We have collected so many scrap books that we would need to build a wing on our cottage to have enough bookcases to store them. We have our children’s arts and crafts projects, gifts they bought us for special occasions, letters they wrote while studying overseas that reveal lessons about life they were learning, and a host of other tangible treasures. I have come to the realization that such memories have to be mentally “downloaded” into the inner recesses of my heart to be recalled later in quiet times of refection and gratitude. I will manage to save a few choice tokens. After all, isn’t that what those plastic storage containers are for anyway?

I may be annoyed by moves, but they will occur anyway. So I might as well just brace myself and pack another box, make additional deposits in the dumpster, and make decisions about stuff that in the long run is not really the sum total or measure of my life anyway. So I guess I should just silently sing as I pack or whistle while I work, “Hi Ho, Hi, Ho another box to go!”

There is another move that I am certain will be coming up in the future. This move is not annoying to me in any way. This move is connected to a promise Jesus made to his disciples, to me, and to all who by faith have trusted in Christ as Savior. Shortly before his crucifixion and resurrection Jesus said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). I look forward to this “last move” that is good for all eternity. For one thing, I don’t have to pack! When Jesus comes for me, either through death or a divine departure, I do not need to take a thing with me. In fact, all the “stuff” I have been shuffling around all these years will be of no consequence (see Luke 12:16-20). He will not only provide a place for me, but all that I need for that place. I don’t need earthly “stuff” to dwell in a heavenly place (see Revelation 21), because I will have put off that which is mortal and put on that which is immortal (see 1 Corinthians 15:50-57).

The greatest thing about the “great last move” is who will be there. My faith will finally become sight as I will see and be in the presence of Jesus, the one who loved me so much he died for me. I will also see family members I have never seen because they made their “final move” before I was born. I have heard of their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. I am assured we will have an eternal meeting. I will also be reunited with those I have known who are fellow believers. What a reunion (see 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)!

Perhaps when I see moving from a bigger, eternal perspective I am not so annoyed after all!