Moved
Moved
“He
told them: "Take nothing for the journey--no staff, no bag, no bread, no
money, no extra shirt.” Luke 9:3
Dear friends of ours from the Navy are making their
transition back into civilian life and moving into a home that will likely be a
permanent home for several years to come. My friend sent me this picture of
their temporary sleeping arrangements and I begged her if I could use this for
an essay, because it reminded me of our military moves and Luke 9:3. The Navy
told us: pack one “express” shipment, one “household” shipment, and a “storage”
shipment; but, “[Jesus] told them:
"Take nothing for the journey--no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no
extra shirt.”
Navy “Express” shipments often include a few small kitchen and dining
necessities, a few small bed and bath linens, inflatable beds, and any other
small furniture or appliances like a coffee maker, desk top computer, maybe a
TV. Think “luxury camping” and you might have an idea of what an
“express” shipment could include -stuff essential for living in case you need
to wait a month before receiving the “household” shipment. “Household”
shipments include nearly all the remaining items: sofas, beds, dressers,
clothes, tables, chairs, all the kitchen gadgets, plates, and whirly-dings. Our
own household was packed and squeezed into 9 large shipping crates, and matched
the approximate mass of a large adult elephant - about 14,000lbs. Lastly, the
“storage” shipment is supposed to be everything that you can do without for the
duration of your tour of duty at the next base. We learned from our experience
of storing a few items like this in our move from New Orleans to San Diego,
that since most of the items we stored there were lost to flooding in hurricane
Katrina, perhaps reconsidering “donation” as substitute for “storing” anything
not worth seeing for three years, would save on cost and concern.
As we were moving out from San Diego, one of the men from the moving company
chatted as he packed. He regaled us with stories of an admiral and his wife,
whom their company had moved. She had 18 sets of fine china that required
delicate packaging!! He said it was the most complex kitchen and bulk household
move he had ever worked. I believe it! 18 sets of china – holy shamoligans – I
hardly use our one!!! On Guam, we met families who had been on many more
deployments and base-to-base moves than our family. We saw such incredible
variety of homes and stuff. Some homes were filled with mementos, books,
figurines, gadgets, knick-knacks, tools, and toys. Others homes were extremely
minimalist in décor and provisions. I admired those minimalist homes that
seemed to naturally and easily embody the verse: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable
than they?” (Matthew 6:26)
Today I consider our home through the perspective of the photo of my friend’s
“backpack-simple” bedroom as she moves, through the current church season’s
goggles of Lenten sacrifices, and through the lens of my military-motivated
sense that spring is “imminent-change-of-duty-station” season (permanently
embedded in my circadian rhythm now). The overly occupied countertops and
surfaces, the clothes, toys, odds, ends, and ever-endless paperwork lurking in
the many drawers, shelves, closets, and cubbies taunt me. They are a regular
spiritual home-front battle. The battle of acting on the knowledge that while
more books, toys, gadgets, papers, decorations, and other numerous items will
inevitably make their way into our home, we must continually learn and relearn
to say no, to consider ways of living with less, and, in an ongoing way,
sort-donate-sort-donate, lest we become buried in our material items.
Heavenly Lord, there is a baby elephant’s weight of belongings in this home
that we don’t need. Help us find the time and grace needed, to sort it out
gradually, donate it generously, recycle it carefully, and lighten our home so that
it might have greater space for your DIVINE enlightenment and the freedom such
as the birds of the air enjoy. Amen.
