On Sunday, the kids and I got back from a 9-day road trip to SC and NC. We stayed with Linda while Steve was traveling, saw family and friends and did life with our community again for a few days. It all felt blessedly familiar and yet also strange. We ended with a fall trip to the mountains — a youth group retreat for the kids with their friends, and girl time in a cabin for my cousin and me.
So many precious, golden new memories, interspersed with grief of wondering afresh, Why did we have to leave? Here are some photos of our trip, along with a prayer I found that perfectly describes this season of life for the Gentino family.
Good Father Who Gives Good Gifts to His Children,
Like Abraham, in a step of faith
We have journeyed from the comforting
sameness of all we once knew — our family
and home, our friends, our neighborhood,
our church, our old school, our settled
rhythms and routines.
We have moved far from all
that was familiar, foundational,
and steadying. The distance is
disorienting in ways we did not foresee.
For now we have little to anchor our life.
That organic and interconnected web of
community was so deep a part of our identity.
In this new place
we do not know
where we fit.
We feel ourselves adrift.
So let our life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit,
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.
We do not yet have here the same
resources of vital relationship
to sustain us.
O God, we are lonely here.
But you are present with us.
We are unmoored,
But you are our anchor.
We are unsteady,
But you are our rock.
Now lead us into good community.
Let us forge new friendships.
Give us a place in this place.
Graft us into your Body, and into
this community, in ways that we might be
blessed, and also a blessing. Plant us in places where we might find delight–
in serving and in receiving, in fellowship
and celebration, in sharing the many joys
and griefs and labors, and small and
meaningful moments of which friendships
and fellowships and the community
of saints are finally built.
Use now even this time of disorientation
to draw our hearts closer to Yours; to teach
us how better to trust and hope
in your promises, how better
to rest in Your love.
Let whatever hardships we endure
for a time be turned — under the sway
of your Spirit — into a more mindful
and active compassion extended toward
others who might suffer similar dismay.
Give us grace enough that we might,
even in our own season of discomfort,
still offer friendship and fellowship to
others who also struggle to find their place.
Let us build good community
and strong friendship
by serving one another.
So let our lives here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit,
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.
Amen.
– Douglas McElvey, Every Moment Holy: Rites of Passage
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