Transition Crowders

On the ride yesterday I had an interesting conversation with Ashley. Now, you have to understand that by “conversation” I mostly mean me talking while she nods off (which she does well on road trips), but I think she engaged in the discussion enough for me to count her in.

It’s just that we’ve lived in Oregon for 3 years…. 3 years. Is that a long time? It sure feels like it. I don’t know what to tell people when we talk about “where I’m from” since I obviously just moved to Dallas. Am I “from” Oregon? I sure feel like an Oregonian. I’ve spent exactly 7 times as much time in Alabama and Mississippi as I have in Oregon, but Oregon is a special place for us. Along with having a lot of great friends in the NW, I’ve also spent every year of my married life there. It’s also where Emery was born and spent her whole life so far (1 year!).

But what I was telling Ashley was that in 15 years, 3 years in Oregon will just be a blip on the radar for us as a family. And in 15 years I won’t even be 40! Oregon and the people in Corvallis have had so much to do with shaping my soul and teaching me what it means to live in connection with my Creator. I’m incredibly indebted to that overpriced, rainy place.

We were both really sad to be leaving the community we were a part of in Oregon. But you know, if it weren’t the case then we would have probably had a terrible three years in Corvallis. I have to keep looking up at SportsCenter on the Weigler’s sweet HD TV to keep from tearing up while writing this. It’s not really helping though…

Aren’t we always moving? We’re always transitioning, growing, and learning? I talked some recently with cohorts about transformation, especially in regards to Christian spiritual formation, but also about the idea of transformation in general. Though I got some disagreeing comments, I concluded that I think we’re always being transformed. We can never fight transformation, it’s like gravity. Even when we think we’re stagnating, we’re actually becoming transformed in our patterns–past, future, and present. The process of becoming ingrained is actually continual. I can be an Oregonian because of the transformational impact my time there has had on my life. We’re in Dallas, but we’re always moving.

A long, short journey

Today was a big day.

At the end of the service at Grant Avenue Baptist Church this morning I stood up and read a letter.

A resignation letter.

Today it became official news that I’m leaving Corvallis soon to take a ministry job closer to the place of my birth. Not incredibly close, but close enough. More details to come, but for now I’ll just say that it was a really hard decision but God is bigger than our preferences and we’re excited to be taking on a great challenge in the future.