Always on the move

When I arrived in Italy in August, I couldn't believe what I'd done. I had moved to another country on my own, was sleeping in the back of a truck, working for a farmer with whom I had no previous contact. Yeah, what was I thinking? Was it crazy, foolish, maybe irrational? It could have been all of those things, but I am beginning to see that more than any of those, it was God.

I call "it", the ever-changing environment of my life. Since beginning college I've moved from Indiana to Texas and now to Italy. Why the change? Why do I feel a constant pull to shake up my surroundings and throw myself into new situations? Well, to be honest, it's not a feeling I crave, but a truth that I have had to experience and live, at least for the past couple years. I can't tell you why I had such interest in moving to Texas. Nor could I say why I decided to quit Spanish after five years of study and switch to Italian in college. It's not so much a desire that seems to relocate me, but a calling.

The Spirit certainly moves with and in Jesus on his way to Jerusalem and to his death. Jesus is always moving, always changing his location, ministering wherever he is needed... and all to an eventual end. So do we all walk this sort of trail? I am beginning to see that my life looks this way. We can fool ourselves into believing that it is as simple as graduating with a degree and settling down, but is it really? We minister to those around us constantly — the ones we've known since childhood and the ones that we just met today. Our interactions define our ministry just as Jesus' did. Following the parallel, we all face death just as did Jesus.

Of course, between our lives and that of Jesus, the stories differ immensely. Fair to say also is that between each of the near seven billion people on this Earth, not many of our stories seem entirely similar. The common thread is that we live, we change those around us while dealing with change within us, and we die. There is no settling down, there is no freeze frame. It sounds like the simplest thing to say, but time never stops.

There are several ways to measure our time between beginning and end. To quote from the musical Rent, "How about love?" Love, in all its forms, seems to be the best way to see just how far we've made it from birth to death. The love of the God-given change that happens along the way is indeed part of the summation of who, what, and how we love. Do I need a reason for going to Texas or Italy? No. The important thing now is for me to embrace my life and where I have been placed. You've probably heard the quote, "The only constant in science is change." I believe that the same is true for life. And the change? Maybe that's God.