Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I remember the first six years of marriage and the challenges it brought to Cynthia and me.  After the first 3 years we had adjusted pretty well and began to connect on almost every area of life.  Three years later God brought to our lives our first child and duties changed.  We had to manage not only connecting as husband and wife, but we had to now manage taking care of a wonderful infant that God brought our way.  In the next several years He brought two other children which created new challenges and then one left the nest.  It was during this time as well that Cynthia died and a new challenge surfaced of being a single parent to two children and then another left the nest.  Family life is a never-ending experience of changing duties.  Sometimes it is challenging to change with the changing duties of this fluid family structure.

I was reading about the Levites this morning in I Chronicles 23. They had been in charge of carrying the tabernacle from place to place for 40+ years.  When the Lord told the nation of Israel to move, they had to pack up the tabernacle (tent) and move it to where the Lord wanted them to go and then unpack it.  That was their duty.  But when Israel settled in the promised land, God directed David through Solomon to build a temple that would be permanent place for the people to worship.  In verse 26 it says that the Levites no longer needed to carry the tabernacle or any of the articles used in its service.  Their duties changed.  They were called upon to do a variety of different tasks that they had never done.  Their old job was over.  A new job was before them.  I’m sure it was hard for some of them. New jobs can be uncomfortable.  It can create insecurity because we lack the confidence for the new job we had for the old one.  But in the family, duties are continuing to change and God wants us to change with those duties.

On this journey, empty nesting, loss of spouse and change of jobs are part of this journey.  Our willingness or lack thereof to work through our insecurities as we face new steps on this journey will decide the joy and fulfillment we experience throughout His journey for our lives.