A Word About Moving
I talked to a young man this morning who works in a little coffee hut I frequent. Often, when I stop there in the morning to grab coffee on my way into my office, he greets me and we exchange brief updates on our lives, how we’re doing. Several weeks ago, he told me he had a new job in Florida, and he’ll be moving after the first of the year. When he told me the news, he sounded excited. He said it would be a new adventure for him. As a believer, he felt the Lord had opened the door to this new opportunity, and he was anxious to make the move.
Well, this morning when I stopped for coffee, he was anxious about something else. He said, “I’m trying to work out my apartment situation in Florida. I thought I had it all lined up, but they raised the rent two-hundred-fifty bucks a month on me.” He said, “I think the demand for the Florida weather in the winter time, and so many people moving to Florida from other parts of the country have placed a high demand on apartments, so they can get away with raising the rent because of the demand.”
I could tell by the concern in his voice that the move was weighing heavily on him. So, I asked him a question. I said, “How convinced are you that the Lord opened a door of employment for you in Florida.” His response was immediate and emphatic: “Very convinced.”
“Well then,” I said, “you have nothing to worry about. The God who’s moving you to Florida is the God who made Florida. He’s totally in charge of housing the people he’s moving to Florida, and he’s got a spot for you already picked out. It may not be what you’d prefer. But his provision is always certain and exactly what we need.” He smiled at me as he was making my coffee, and said, “Thanks for that word of encouragement. I needed it.”
“No problem,” I said. And then, as he handed my coffee to me through the window of that little drive-up hut, I remembered a verse of scripture my dad used to often quote that seemed to perfectly fit this situation. So I told that young man, the David wrote in the Book, “I used to be young, but now I’m old, but I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” ‘If God has opened a door for you, He is not going to let you wander around the hallway wondering where you belong.’ He said, “Thanks for reminding me.”
As I drove away from that coffee hut, I reflected back on some of the times in my own life when God provided what I did not know how to find. Jobs. Houses. Friendships. Strength for days when I felt like I had nothing left. I can echo David’s words. I was young once. And now I am old. But I have never known God to forget His child.
If you are facing a move of your own, if you feel like your life is on its way to some kind of Florida God may be directing you toward, take heart. The God who sends you will meet you. He knows the doorways you cannot yet see. And long before you lift a box or sign a lease, He has already prepared the place where your next chapter will begin.