A little catching up

So much has happened in the past month since moving from Oregon to Southern Cali. The obvious things, like finding a place to live, and the unexpected things, like having our car break down and require a major overhaul. In the past, I have found that it either pours, or the sun is out, but this move has been a mix. It's like a reminder that God is good, whether life is beautiful, or awful. When my happiness is what determines how I see God, then I am once again trying to fit Him in a box. A very normal, unimpressive box.

Our house still has quite a few boxes right now. We even have a pile of boxes that are broken down. And of course the small pile of boxes with things in them that we're not sure what to do with. I've been doing that a lot with God lately. Putting Him in a box like something I can't seem to fit anywhere.

There were a lot of neat things that happened on the move down. We were able to reserve a huge truck for less than half of what we should have paid for it, because we reserved it early enough. It was a miracle we fit everything in there, including a motorcycle. We were able to sell a lot of stuff at the yard sale we had in Oregon, and made almost $500! Money seemed to come at all the right times too. And Kim got a job in 5 days! That's unheard of! We found a place for pretty cheap too, only a few blocks from the beach, and not far from school. I know there are more things to be thankful for, and I should have written them down sooner.

But things were a mix. The car started overheating, and we took it to a good mechanic, who tried the simple things first, trying to keep from breaking the bank, but it ended up being a cracked head, and costing a couple grand. So that was hard. And my motorcycle came loose during transport, fell over, and messed up the paint on the tank really bad, not to mention knocking loose the throttle cable and who knows what else. And money has been horribly tight, plus not technically having had enough to get down here. And the place we found was in pretty rough shape, with lots of problems, and delays, and we're still waiting to have a fridge and stove that work. There's more, but I don't want to think about them all at once.

So really, things have been a little hard, but in the end we're okay. There's a roof over our heads, we have clean water and food and a car and a job and school and friends and family. That puts us in the top what, 5% of the world, right? It might seem like things have gone downhill, but 95% of the world are further down the hill from us still, so how dare we complain? Are we still faithful if we complain? Probably. Just a little less impressive.

We're learning what it means to trust, and He got us this far.

And God hasn't finished yet.