Fifteen years ago today I began a new life. In a sense that is nothing conspicuously significant. It wouldn't be the last new life I would begin in the course of those fifteen years -- some on the far side of curves that threatened to scuttle me. The difference is that none of the subsequent new beginnings involved a car and a thousand-mile change of address. Fifteen years ago today I drove into Des Moines, Iowa after a lifetime firmly planted in Texas.
It hadn't occurred to me that I would ever live outside of Texas. It never occurred to me that I would ever live in Iowa. It certainly hadn't occurred to me that I would likely live out the rest of the my life in Des Moines. But then who ever knows about such things?
I remember calling my parents the next day to report a safe arrival, mentioning that "it was zero degrees when I rolled into town, and then it got cold." Indeed it did. It was my first experience with sub-zero weather; truly a foreign land.
But it was a land shortly to become home in every way that matters. I'm quite certain that I will always be a Texan -- that Lone Star illuminates every corner of my personal universe, and I read, for better and for worse, by its light -- but I am almost as certain that I'll not live there again. It was a good move fifteen years ago, in countless ways I could not have predicted, and I am grateful -- not so much for what I left behind, because I keep that ever and blessedly with me. No, I am grateful for the new world, indeed the new life, I have subsequently found, where least I would have expected it.
Fifteen years later, no one could still be more surprised than me.
Living proof that God works in mysterious ways.
3 comments:
I speak for the many... no, really, there have to be at least 9 or 10 of us... that are so very happy, thrilled and fortunate that you came into our worlds, whatever that pathway might have been! Thank you so much for calling Des Moines home, for "living" here with us and among us, and for touching our lives so deeply and lovingly. We are indeed the lucky ones. We are indeed blessed, touched by your passions, your thoughts, and your heart. True, you will always be a Texan (and for that we forgive you). But know without question that you and your family are also loved, and appreciated, and cherished in Des Moines! Can I get an "Amen" from the crowd of readers that would agree?!?!?!
AMEN!
As a Texan, I assure you that you will always be a Texan; and Texas will always welcome you back if God should ever call you back.
And even though Dallas might have a new building or west Texas might have a massive new farm of windmills, you will know Texas and Texas will know you.
Blessings on your anniversary and the years of good ministry in Iowa.
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