Moving a Mountain

As the Chinese proverb goes “A man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones”. With this monumental life change, there was clearly a lot to get accomplished in a very short timeframe. Instead of moving one stone at a time, I was thinking it would be better to just move the mountain with a bulldozer. When we first decided what we were going to do there was a mad frenzy for the next 6 weeks. In this timeframe we had cleared out about 2 dumpsters worth of junk, given away much of our furniture, kitchen ware, lawn and garden stuff, holiday decorations, purchased our toy hauler, purchased our truck, and put our house on the market. In my mind we were set. ALL that has to happen is for someone to come by and purchase our house and we are off to warm Arizona. Well this hasn’t happened yet. There is a saying “Expectations are premeditated resentments”. This has rung true for me.

After that first big push I found myself low on energy and motivation. There was an initial rush of enthusiasm that WAS followed by action. However it was like running a marathon at a 100 meter pace. So during October we took a step back. We took some time to travel to northern Wisconsin to see the colors. We had a family get together, and we headed back to Sioux Falls to complete our residency. This really has allowed us to recharge our batteries and make decisions on what needs to be done that could help us in selling the home. Here is where the small stones come into play now. There are a lot of small things that need to be done. They don’t have be done in 1 one day, however they do have to be done bit by bit everyday. Now we have a plan in place which helps me to remain focused.

This whole process has really been a lesson for me in practicing patience and letting go of expectations. I have learned that God does not necessarily answer prayers directly, however offers us situations in order to practice what we pray for. I do believe I am going to stop praying for patience.