Last weekend, my friends loaded my belongings into a couple of pickup trucks, a trailer, and backseats, and moved them roughly 500 feet away. 

This move marked my third consecutive year of packing and unpacking, the fourth in the past five years. I recently counted up all the moves I’ve made in my adult life—and promptly forgot the number because it was too overwhelming! I’ve resisted many of these moves, but there are priceless lessons that God is teaching me through my nomadic adventures. These lessons go far deeper than skills in packing and unpacking.

Remember What Lasts

Every move I’ve made has also involved a trip to my local resale shop. I load my car with things that once felt impossible to live without—clothes, home decor, hobby supplies, books. Each time I unload the car, I remember something Matt Chandler once said: “The item you crave today is the stuff of tomorrow’s garage sale” (my paraphrase). I prove his point with every carload. 

With each load, I have an opportunity to remember a place where moth and rust don’t destroy, thieves don’t break in and steal, and nothing is destined for the trash heap. I pause to consider what lasts and endures—the word of God and the souls of people—and I’m challenged to invest more of my time, energy, money, and affections in the eternal. Each move reminds me, “Not home yet.”

Wherever You Are, Be All There

In 1950, Jim Elliot, living in Illinois, but feeling a call to go to Ecuador, wrote in his diary: “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” 

Moving continues to teach me to be all there, wherever I am. There have been places that have felt so temporary that I barely unpacked. I didn’t open my door to invite others in. I didn’t bother to get to know the neighbors. “I’m just passing through,” I thought. 

But then I think about the eternal Son of God becoming man and coming to dwell on earth for a brief thirty-three years. I think about the One who had no place to lay his head, passing through a village, yet lingering to speak with a woman at the well. I think of the incarnational call that he’s given me—a call to dwell in this place and to be his ambassador here, regardless of the length of my stay. It causes me to embrace the significance of this place—to make it home, to invite others in, and to bake brownies for the neighbors.

Roots Run Deeper Than an Address

When I moved last year, I began to pray, “Lord, let me stay.” He answered that prayer in an unexpected way, letting me stay in the same apartment complex, but a new unit. My deeper prayer, though, was for stability. There again, he’s answered in unexpected ways. 

In my mind, stability means not having to fill out a USPS change form again. It means that my people know where to send their Christmas cards each year. But the Lord has shown me that stability is about so much more than a consistent address.

It’s about being rooted in a place. It’s about belonging. It’s about being committed to a family, a church, a workplace, a community. It’s about staying. Maybe not at the same address, but staying in relationship. Staying when times are good and when times are bad, and being surrounded by people who have chosen to stay with me. When I consider stability through this lens, I see roots that run deep.

I Have a Dwelling Place

Each move reminds me of one core truth:

“The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Deuteronomy 33:27a

When I long for a place to call home, I’m reminded that I have a dwelling place that is secure and stable—it’s eternal. My challenge, if I’m honest, is to remember this on the days when I’m settled. On days like today when I look around at my comfortable home, I’m tempted to praise God for this gift without remembering the greater gift to which it points. He is my dwelling place. The eternal maker of heaven and earth is my refuge. I can run to him to find shelter and safety. I can turn to him when I long for the comforts of home. Home is a gift—a good gift—but the longing for home is a sweeter gift yet. That longing is fully met, not in a place, but a Person!

As I settle into my new home, I’ll continue to ask the Lord to let me stay. But I also pray that he’ll continue to remind me of these truths, seeing them as his good gifts in every one of my moves.