Letting Go
If you’ve been following our story, you know that we are moving to England on June 7th to serve, evangelize and teach. If you haven’t been following our story, I invite you to join us on our journey. It’s getting more exciting every day!
This last Saturday was Round 1 of our “Everything Must Go” sale. For weeks we have been sifting through EVERYTHING we own to determine what to sell, give away, donate or trash. It has been exhausting. Then, last Saturday, we had an open house. Almost every room in our house and our garage is set up as a showroom and pretty much anything that’s visible is for sale. We definitely sold a lot this weekend (including both of our cars!), but we still have a lot left, so we are going to do a Round 2 this Saturday! Yikes! Deep breath…
But my blog today isn’t really about the sale; it’s about letting go. As we’ve been going through this process, it occurred to us that we’ve spent our entire adult life intentionally acquiring things. It’s what we do. Over the years, we have slowly but surely upgraded our little world to have more things and higher quality things… tables, couches, TVs, etc. It’s a huge reversal in thinking to suddenly be doing the complete opposite. We are now intentionally getting rid of all of those things that we’ve been so proud to have. Seriously. By June 7th basically all that we will have to our name is 3 plane tickets to England, some clothing, a few guitars, a box of Brooklyn’s favorite toys and a few other small things to remind of us home. That’s it!
Last night as I drove our much-loved minivan to the location of our “transaction” to exchange keys for cash and send it away to a new home, I was overwhelmed by just how real this is all becoming. The story of how God provided that van to us is one of those memories that will be with me forever. That van was one of the most tangible reminders to me of God’s faithfulness to meet our needs, and I didn’t want to let go of that special reminder of God’s provision. As I prayed and contemplated these things, I felt the still, quiet voice of God speak wisdom and peace straight to my heart. He said, “Previously, the presence of things has been the evidence of My provision for you. Now, it will be the absence of things that will be the evidence of My provision for you.” Wow.
I think of how many times we, as a family, have prayed for God to use us any way He desires to; how often we have verbally committed all that we are and all that we have to Him, along with professing that He is all we really need. Well, we are entering a phase of life where we will actually get to live that. God will have to truly be our source, as He will essentially be all that we have! To say this is easy would be a lie. Letting go of everything to live by faith at the level the Lord has asked us to is far beyond anything we’ve ever had to do. The obstacles, the “giants,” that are between us and our ability to answer this call are bigger and scarier than any we’ve ever faced. Yet our excitement and anticipation is growing by the second. Oh yes, we have our moments of doubt and worry… how could we not? But by letting go of everything, there is literally nothing to hold us back from going where He tells us, when He tells us. That is an exciting place to be.
Blessings and more to come soon!
- Connie, Trevor & Brooklyn
