DOWNSIZING!

The Lord is a Warrior – Jehovah is His Name!

From sinking sand He lifted me,
With tender hand He lifted me,
From shades of night to plains of light,
O praise His name, He lifted me!    Gabriel

As most of you know, I have been sidetracked from my writing with the selling of my home, along with all the work that comes from getting rid of years and years of accumulated “STUFF”! You know, all that good and useful stuff that has been sitting in closets or in drawers or some box you haven’t looked into in years. However, attached to them all is the nostalgic memories of a time in the past when all you can remember is the rosy glow of what used to be, of course, now looking somewhat tarnished with age … hmmmm or is that rust?
Okay Syb, bite the bullet and toss it into the goodwill bin, or Restore, or horror of horrors the garbage where it should have gone years ago.
I lift my head and look around – must get the house ready for ‘staging’ according to the experts. There is, of course, all the furniture one has accumulated over the centuries. What is one to do that is coming from a four bedroom home and going to a two bedroom apartment? No problem I think… “Thank goodness for storage units!”
I think of having a garage sale, but I haven’t the energy to do this and that too. I could put my treasures on kijiji or in the buy and sell paper. No … I don’t feel comfortable with a stranger coming to my home when I am here alone. Fortunately some of my family is taking some of it, but I still have so many decisions to make on what to do with the rest.
So… I come to the conclusion that it all belongs to Jesus anyway, and end up giving much away to relatives, young couples with families, or those just starting out their married life together full of the same hope and excitement Neil and I had in our beginnings.
The first phase of the downsizing — getting rid of — giving away — continued as I worked away. I got to the point where one and a bit of a load went to the dump; a huge trailer load to the ReStore; a car load to the Salvation Army; my nephew Thomas took two days of his time to unload and take away much in my garage and storage shed; with the rest going to loving homes.
Thanks to two ladies I hired from the moving company, who packed up the rest of my belongings into boxes two days before the move, along with my grandson Christopher who had been with me the previous week working heartily as unto the Lord, we got everything prepared for ‘Moving Day’.  Two hard working gentlemen from the moving company, along with Chris and my son Robert who came up the day before, as well as a perfect ‘prayed for and granted’, sunny day, everything moved along like clockwork.
I am now in my beautiful apartment that the Lord graciously arranged for me. Robert and Chris stayed for two extra days to help get me settled. Robert came up for a day the following week to install a standing air conditioner. My sisters Donna and Roberta came two different days and we went through and emptied a pile of the boxes. They also moved and arranged a lot of the furniture making it more like home. I feel so blessed with all the help I have received!
Little by little I’m tackling the other boxes and things are coming together. I now have more boxes that are gathering the next stage of downsizing. Some memories that escaped the first cleansing are still hanging around or I should say hiding out in the storage unit waiting for me to bite the bullet. The more I bite that bullet and get rid of things I have collected over the years, the higher my spirits soar, and the load becomes so much lighter on my shoulders.
You may wonder why I chose this title for an article about my moving. Well, I wrote the article  a few years ago about an earlier time of positive change in my life. I feel the Lord is bringing about another positive change through this move for He has me getting rid of possessions that bind. He is preparing me for another adventure and I want so much to be able to join Him.
Examine your own lives and ask yourself “How free a soldier am I for Jesus? Am I ready for His call into the battle?”
Harvest time is here Soldier.  No time left to dilly-dally. 