I believe I am a colorful type of person. I'm artsy, cheerful, a bit adventurous and I love to laugh. Yet, there is something peaceful and wonderfully pleasing about our nation's capital to me. Yes, it's fairly flat, the buildings run along the landscape in a monotonous pattern - stone, square, stone, square, stone... But, the history, the monuments, the movements inspire me. When I moved here I wanted this to be home. I envisioned one day that I would be sitting on the balcony of a loft, overlooking New York Avenue sipping a cup of TAZO Green Tea in my robe and slippers. For ten years I created memories while I waited for my vision to become a reality. I marched in this city, I rubbed elbows with those on Capitol Hill, had dinner with Rosa Parks, I fell in love, I had my heart broken, I found lifelong friends. I became an adult, a Christan and a wife.
Yesterday as I was walking along The National Mall I thought about the monuments. Not the monuments on The Mall, but the monuments that I created (we create). Those monuments that we go to in order to recapture a time in our past - attempts to re-live or resurrect a memory. There is a reason why God moves us from one chapter of our lives to another. The Bible gives us so many examples and reasons of this very thing from Abraham to Paul, prospering to healing. We oftentimes make the assumption that familiar always equates to safe, fun, easy, relatable. When in actuality it may just be monotonous - stone, square, stone, square. . .
Then the LORD told Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you. Genesis 12:1, NLT
Leave those monuments, customs and other things and go to the place that I will show you. A place where you will create new memories, a new life, new experiences and challenges.
I will cherish the memories that I created. I will smile, laugh, shake my head and remember them all, keeping in mind that they can't be reborn or relived. I am a colorful kind of person. I like variety, adventure, art and laughter.
What about you. Have you created monuments that you are trying to resurrect? Do you find yourself repeating the same patterns in your life? Are your memories keeping you from moving forward? Don't get stuck in what appears to be familiar, safe and easy. Life has so many opportunities to be seized. Trust Him and go.
