As part of getting the apartment ready for baby, Peter and I recently unpacked the last few boxes from our move a little over a year ago. In the Hough House the last few boxes are always the toughest because they're always full of all the little random odds and ends that don't really have a home but you couldn't bring yourself to get rid of when you were packing up - so they all got dumped together in one big mess of a box. Well, my nesting instinct having kicked in to some extent, I recently decided that the time had come - the boxes had to go, along with any contents that we couldn't find a logical place or use for. I hate tedious decision-making though, so working through those boxes took me over a week - but now we're done! And that's a pretty good feeling.
At least two of the boxes were half-filled with all the notes and journals and handouts that I've collected over the years from apparently every Bible study, sermon, missions conference, etc., that I've ever been a part of. Now this stuff is especially difficult for me. I know that I will never read or even look at the vast majority of it again and we really don't have the space for it - but somehow throwing it away feels terrible, like I'm throwing away all my merit badges that prove (mostly to myself) that I am, in fact, a Christian. In the end however, good sense and the nesting instinct won out and most of it went in the trash, but I did keep a very few things.
One of the items I kept was from a Bible study on Exodus that Peter and I led back in college - I think just after we'd gotten married. It was one of my all-time favorite Bible studies - and to this day Exodus is one of my favorite books of the Bible. The item I kept is really just one small piece of paper titled, "What I Learned From Exodus." Here's the rest in case you're interested:
1. It is not about our capabilities, but about God's will and sovereignty and power. (What God chooses to do - He does.)
2. Deliverance rarely comes in the form or manner we expect. (Examples: Moses, manna, Jesus)
3. God has had this whole thing planned out since the beginning. (Moses' preparation; References to Christ in the Passover/Tabernacle)
4. It is very important to God that we know Him (who He is).
That's all! But after 8 years, it did my heart good to read those again.
1 comment:
I have been so horrible about those last few boxes that before this last move (2 months ago), I unpacked about 15 of those boxes from the last 8 moves, it felt so wonderful! Of course now I have 2 more, but maybe I will stay here a while and get to unpack them.
I think all of my old notes have long since been trashed, but I was reading this and remembered a sermon that Peter preached on God being the end and the means. It was in Violet Hall, and it changed my view of God. It was the beginning of my understanding of worship. Anyway, just thought I would share. katie
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