Dear Friends,

Can you believe those ancient Israelites? Here God rescues them from brutal slavery in Egypt, and how do they repay Him? By grumbling when the Egyptians run after them. Why didn’t they trust Him, after all He had done for them? They wanted food, He gave them manna from Heaven, and what do they do? They whine for meat. When Moses isn’t looking, they worship a golden calf, and give it, something they made with their own hands, the credit for saving them from the Egyptians! What was wrong with those people?

Considering my low opinion of their lack of gratefulness, imagine my shock and horror when I discovered that I, too, murmur just like those Israelites. Of all the lessons I’ve learned this year, that had to be the most painful and important. 

As usual, my life this year was full of changes and surprises; no sooner did I recover from one upheaval than another one hit. You’d think that, after 19 years, I’d have figured that out, but somehow the changes always managed to take me by surprise. So I’ve kind of been in a perpetual state of shock ever since January, when my sister and I started college. My mom went back to school, too, to renew her nursing license. Then my dad quit his job so he could properly execute Grandma’s estate. In March I became the editor of Christiana Magazine, then in June I got my first job. After getting her license renewed, my mom entered the workplace again for a short time after staying home with us kids for 22 years. Finally, that nasty business with my Grandma’s estate was cleared up. And last but not least, in October my dad got another job, requiring us to buy a house and move across town. It was through the move that I learned that awful lesson.

After the estate got cleared up, Dad was ready to re-enter the workforce. Since we’d moved to Phoenix to take care of Grandma, and that responsibility was now gone, my dad was anxious to leave Arizona. Eleven years of hot summers and short winters had been enough for him. So he began an inter-state job search, and flew all over the country for job interviews in such remote places as Virginia, Iowa, and Alabama. Since Dad’s particular field of expertise is very narrow, there was only one position available in Phoenix. He applied for it, somewhat begrudgingly, and dutifully interviewed for it. The interview didn’t go as well as the others, so he didn’t expect to hear back from them at all. We three kids prepared ourselves to move to a foreign state, leaving behind all we knew and loved.

And then, wouldn’t you know it, Dad got a very good job offer from that Phoenix company; so good, in fact, that there was hardly a question about accepting it. So of course, after a lot of prayer, he accepted it, and was set to start in three weeks. There was only one problem. The job was an hour away, so we had to move to the other side of the Valley. The problem was that the lease on the house we were renting at the time wasn’t up until April. We could break the lease early, but we’d have to continue paying rent until someone else moved in. With November and December coming up, supposedly the worst months to rent or sell a house, the timing was very close. Either we bought a house right away and moved in before Dad started working at his new job, or we waited until April. 

After six years of living in our cramped little rental house, there was no question of what we wanted to do: MOVE! Right now!

We found a realtor and started house-hunting. Anna and I went looking the first day; we were going to narrow down the choices for Mom and Dad. We looked at eight or so houses, and found two possibilities, but nothing that excited us. Both houses would need a lot of work, and we really didn’t have time for that. At the end of the day we had time to look at one more house. There were a few on our list that looked like they might work, but Anna didn’t want to look at either one. “Let’s look at this one,” she said, referring to a house which had big room dimensions listed, but the square footage was under what we were looking for. “That square footage can’t be right; not with those room dimensions.” 

I didn’t want to look at the house; I thought we were wasting our time, but Anna had such a strong feeling about it, and it was so close to where we were, that we decided to go. We walked into the house and immediately knew that it was the house for us. It was beautiful; almost brand new and in wonderful condition. There had never been any pets or smoking in the houses, so it wouldn’t bother Anna’s allergies. It didn’t need any repairs or fixing up. Best of all, we loved the layout of the house. It was open and spacious, yet very homey and comfy at the same time. We loved it. And it was the lowest priced house on the list! 

Mom and Dad looked at it the next day, and loved it too. Since it’s our family policy to sleep on big decisions, we waited until the next day before putting an offer on the house. It was accepted that day! The owner wasn’t living in the house and wanted to close the deal as soon as possible. The deal was closed in only two weeks, and we were able to move in the weekend before Dad started his new job!

Wow! That was a lot of answers to prayer!

Now comes the part about not grumbling. The whole period during and following the move was like a big roller coaster. First everything would be up, then down. We found out that we would have to pay a lot of extra charges for breaking the lease, and considered backing out of buying the house to avoid the fees. Down. Then we found out we’d have to pay those fees anyway, so we went ahead with the house. Up. We all got really sick and couldn’t pack. Down. Everyone but Anna got better. Up. We couldn’t find anyone to help us move. Down. The day of the move came and we had four people helping us move. Up. We got the moving truck to our new house and couldn’t find the key to the padlock on the truck. Down. Our new neighbor came over and helped us cut it off. Up. Sunday, the second day of the move, came, and we had some help and the movers we’d hired to move the big stuff. Up. The movers weren’t that great, wasted time, and bashed some walls in our new house. Down. We were able to sleep in our new house that night. Up. 

And that was just the first week! Then Anna was too sick to go to class all week. Down. We had a lot of people helping us move Saturday. Up. Hardly anyone helped Sunday; we were able to get everything in the moving van, but we were exhausted and didn’t have anyone to help us unload. Down, down, down. When we got to the new house with the load, Anna said a family was coming over to help us unload! Up, up, up! We started unloading and they didn’t come, and didn’t come. Down. Then they came, right when we’d run out of strength! Up!
That was week two. During week three we had to unpack the new house and clean the old house, paint walls, fix things, etc. Down. Some friends from out of town came to stay with us and helped us all week! Up! The husband of the family I work for had a complete heart block while I was at work one night, and I spent the entire week with the family, only taking time off to go to school and out to eat with my family once. Down. Mom, Dad, and I spent the entire weekend cleaning the house. Down. Monday they inspected the house and said it wasn’t clean enough. Down, down, down. Anna was still sick Tuesday and couldn’t go to class. Down, down, down.

After a week of downers, I was pretty down. While I was driving the hour and a half drive to class by myself that night, I realized how much grumbling I’d done in the past few weeks. Every time something bad happened, or I was tired, or had to do something I didn’t want to do, I grumbled and mumbled and got depressed and upset, and said, “Oh, Lord, why are you putting me through this?” In fact, I had just said those very words when the Lord said to me, “What are you so depressed about? Your dad has a wonderful, well-paying job, you have a wonderful house which you were able to move into in a very short time, I have blessed you abundantly and miraculously answered your prayers, and now you grumble against me? Don’t you trust me? Can’t you praise Me for the things I have done and trust me for the things you are now going through?”

I thought of the Israelites, and for the first time, I understood how they were able to grumble against God. They forgot what He had already done for them, just as I had forgotten all the things God had done for me.

“Forgive me, Lord,” I whispered. Then I started remembering. I praised Him for every good thing I could think of, and told Him I trusted Him to take care of the requests I had. It wasn’t until some time later that I realized that what I had done, that praising and praying, was straight out of scripture:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known before God.” Philippians 4:6

You know, God really does know what He’s talking about.

So, as you are going through your lives, finishing this year and going on to the next, I challenge you to remember the Israelites and Philippians 4:6. It’s the only way to stay sane in an insane world.

In Christ,

B a c k   t o   T o p