Dirt: old and new....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6hz_s2XIAU

Cool video eh? Today's lesson is about gardening; about being re-planted at the end of January.

It would seem that we are being very silently asked to leave a certain institution. No one will have the guts to say it but where we stand is obvious; especially since that's on the outside looking in. I'm trying to grasp that we were at that institution for a season and now it's time to move on. Ecclesiastes speaks of there being a time for everything and a season for every activity. Apparently it IS our time to uproot. Apparently is IS our time to tear down. Apparently it IS our time to throw away. "Apparently" is being used sarcastically here because despite all the indicators to the contrary I'm really not sure that it IS our time to move on. Or maybe I feel (ok, who am I kidding I KNOW) that moving on isn't God's will. So that brings me to my time to mourn. I've read an article that says that mourning in a situation like this IS the appropriate response. That's good because in case you haven't noticed, I've been known to respond INappropriately....

Soooooooooooooo? Apparently we move on. Matthew 10:13-15 says:

13If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. 15I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

The same story is told in the gospels of Mark and Luke. My favorite part is the word "town" since in our case said institution is an a town about an hour away.

Not the first time we've been in a religious institution for a relatively short time. We were moved on from the last one about a year and a half ago. Such moving makes us look (and honestly feel sometimes transient.) Interesting to note that we've also moved houses some crazy thing like 7 times in 6 years. It's not that we intend to move on; we usually start at a place with the best intentions of putting down roots. In fact that's what I crave. Growing up I lived in the same house in the same community for ???? years? So did my parents friends. When one of them left the property they had lived on for years even I cried. And I cannot begin to imagine what I will do when a cherished aunt and uncle ever leave their house. For so many reasons I've wanted the stability one house, one job, one church would provide to myself and my children. This gypsy lifestyle kind of catches me off guard.

Yet for some reason we do move. Better job opportunity, lack of a job, better house opportunity. Harmful words. All legitimate reasons.

Reasons to make songs like the theme song for the "Littlest Hobo" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=banXT6azA-4 or this one from the Rankin family: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvpZPb11uEU or Willie Nelson's cliched "On the road again" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD_pSeNelU our theme songs.

Like I said I"m trying reaaaaaaaaaaaaal hard not to see this latest move as rejection or failure. Trying to focus on the idea that rejection may be God's version of re-direction. (Honestly God I didn't know that I needed to be re-directed.) But I do know that "Human beings, like plants, grow in the soil of acceptance, not in the atmosphere of rejection." (John Powell.)

I'm making the choice to see the events of the last 6 weeks as a catalyst. You know, I don't think I've ever used that word before. Actually I'd never have used it at all if I hadn't watched a re-run of Touched by an Angel the other day. (Do you remember that I told you that my Huggyband doesn't do sports? Well he DOES do "Touched by an Angel" repeats every night. Go figure. Anyways.......... according to dictionary.com a "catalyst" is: a person or thing that precipitates an event or change." As in "His imprisonment by the government served as the catalyst that helped transform social unrest into revolution. " Or as in: "being let go from a certain institution was the CATALYST that...................? (Lead to bigger and better things? Honestly I have no idea at this point. I can just hope that it leads to better soil.)

So I guess today was all about dirt. About shaking off the dust and being re-planted in to new soil. And I thought the end of January was the wrong season for gardening.