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Where God Wants You to Be
by Jim Kok, Director of Chaplain Services

Where God wants you to be, God holds you safe and gives you peace, even where there is pain. The great challenge here is faithfulness, which must be lived in the choices of every day.  (Henri Nouwen)

One of the lessons of life that Christian Living Communities (CLC) residents have taught me is this: Moving is difficult!  No, I don’t mean getting out of bed in the morning!  (Although that can be difficult for all of us at times)  I mean making the decision to move out of a well-loved home and/or community, packing up all your “stuff”, deciding what to keep and what to give away, and all the emotional and physical difficulties involved in the process.  In my years at CLC, but especially during the last six months here at the Holly Creek community, I’ve talked to a lot of people who’ve recently made just such a move.  One resident talked about how she had to be “dragged, kicking and screaming”, into the community (She was laughing as she said it!), but now she’s grateful for the new friends and strong relationships that she’s found.

Henri Nouwen talks about the place “where God wants you to be.”  So many times the place where God wants us is not necessarily the place we want to be!  Perhaps that’s because we don’t think we’re ready, or because we don’t see any reason to make a change.  Come to think of it, how many times have we had to be “dragged, kicking and screaming” into something new or unexpected?  And how often do we look back and realize that God was moving us to the place he wanted us to be?  As Nouwen says, the great challenge, especially as we start the New Year, is faithfulness, lived in our everyday choices, no matter where we find ourselves.  God bless you in 2006!!

 “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)