When you wake up on your birthday and there’s a realtor lock box on your front door, you realize things are about to change.  I’ll be writing a new age on official documents, and…my next birthday won’t be in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The new age thing wasn’t my choice and I’ve been doing that every year for, well, let’s just say it’s been awhile and leave it at that. So it’s not that big of a deal. But a long distance move after 31 years in the same place?  THAT’S a big deal.

The termination from the job I loved in May was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever lived through.  But as I wrote in my last post just days after that, “When life gets into a routine and nothing rattles us anymore and every day is the same, there is no need to lean on God.  We can get complacent and soft.  But throw a grenade into the mix and we see quite quickly whether or not our faith in God is the real deal”.

So this has been the summer of faith.  It’s also been the summer of wrestling with God, of early morning quiet times at places other than my dining room table. There were tears in the hammock in my Mom’s backyard in New Jersey as I stared up at the tree canopy and realized God was leading me to make a decision that would again change my life.

And as soon as I made that decision, there was peace.  I’ll be moving back to New Jersey next month, to the place where I grew up, to the place where I can sink into being part of the family again.  I’ll be able to spend time with nephews who have only known an Aunt Sharon who lived in Florida and who got to see them a couple of times a year. No more tearful goodbyes at the airport. No more complaining about the lack of changing leaves in the Fall and eternal summer weather. Ha! I’ll be going back to a familiar place, but one that is also new.  So much has changed there since I packed everything I owned into my Chevy Cavalier convertible in 1988 and made the trek to the Sunshine State.

Now, I need a big moving van instead.  The realtor has been secured.  My place will be on the market in 3 days and I’m about to be drowning in boxes.  I don’t have a job or a place to call my own yet in NJ, but I am certain of God’s leading.  I’ve always said how glad I am that I’m a “journaler”.  I write out my prayers.  I write out what God shows me in His Word.  I write out my fears and my questions and my anxieties.  And this summer has been no exception.  But what an amazing blessing to look back on all my entries since May 31st and see how God has undeniably brought me to today and to this decision to relocate.

The next thing is scary, but exciting.  I don’t know all that God has planned ahead for me, but knowing that He knew about this all along and was preparing my head and my heart gives me the reassurance that He’s not going to leave me now.  He knows the job that I need, He knows where I’ll live and He knows the new people He will bring into my life.  I will always be grateful for the experiences and the people God brought into my life in Florida.  I’m not the same person I was when I arrived here.  It’s been amazing. I have been blessed!

It’s crazy, but it’s good. God knows, as He has always known, what comes next.  And I get to enjoy another adventure with Him.  Stay tuned.

Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.  Jeremiah 33:3

For the Lord gives wisdom.  From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.  He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.  He guards the paths of justice and preserves the way of His saints.  Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.  Proverbs 2:6-9

Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways are past finding out!  Romans 11:33