By Charles Christmas

In the Bible we observe God calling persons to leave their familiar surroundings and move into the unfamiliar. God came to Abraham in Haran saying that it was time for him to relocate and through the process he would be blessed. By faith Abraham obeyed and went. His was a lifelong journey of relocating and redirecting. God came to Moses on the back side of the desert saying that it was time to relocate. But the all-powerful, eternal, ever-present God gave him the assurance that he would be with him and meet every need. His future of more than 40 years became one relocating and re-directed experience followed by another, with God fulfilling all of his promises. God came to the apostle at Troas to redirect Paul’s plans and his future ministry. His was a life of God redirecting his plans and locations from his conversion to his death.

God’s clear and unmistakable call has come to me, at age 87, to relocate near my daughter Joy and son-in-law Joe in Memphis. She is my nearest family member, my power of attorney, executrix and loving, caring, affectionate and responsible daughter. It is not right that she relate to my sunset years from a 600-mile round-trip distance when I can relocate within three miles from her and Joe’s home to share our future life together. I signed a contract on a cottage in Lutheran Village, a gated retirement community in Memphis, last Friday and will close this Friday. My wonderful home and house which my wife and I built, located at the Jemison/Thorsby exit on Interstate 65, is now available through a realtor. As surely as the Lord has led me to my new cottage in Memphis to meet my future housing needs, so also I am praying that he will lead some couple or family to my house to meet their present and future needs. If the Lord impresses upon your mind and heart to do so, please join me in such prayer.

I have now turned my primary attention to the process of disposing of my unneeded household possessions and doing all the things necessary to finish well here and to complete a wise transition. My column will be interrupted until I can begin the new chapter of my life in Memphis. Stephen Dawkins, Managing Editor of the Clanton Advertiser, has invited me to resume the writing of my column, for which I feel deeply honored. I am seeking God’s face totally for my future life and ministries, and would only desire to resume writing the column if it were positive both for The Clanton Advertiser and me. I feel a family relationship with my weekly readers and the Advertiser staff.

My wife and I were moved to Chilton County by the Lord going on 25 years ago. My purpose was then and continues to this day to be found in the words of my Lord Jesus Christ: “I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many.” I am aware that I have come short; nevertheless I have never wavered from my purpose. Whether it was with an association of churches, my own West End church body, volunteer ministries, interim pastorates, writing the Simple Truth column, in marriage and family, caring for my paralyzed wife or in other relationships, this has been my committed purpose. And it will be the same as the Lord now begins a “new chapter” in my life in Memphis and until he writes the closing paragraph and he relocates me in heaven with him.

“Now unto the Lord who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all the ages” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

—Charles Christmas is a religion columnist for The Clanton Advertiser. His column appears each Thursday.