Flexibility

     We are tossing around a couple of ideas on where we will be living next.  We've looked at a townhouse that is not excessively far from where we are now, but will also allow for a shorter commute for my husband...or we have talked about an RV.  An RV seems like a little crazier idea, but as my husband pointed out this morning, it really is the one that allows the most flexibility.  When we went to look at the townhouse yesterday and the owner asked us the possibility of us breaking our lease before a year was up,  we both had the same puzzled look and said, "We have no idea.".  We should have a better picture of what my husband will be doing for his occupation by this fall, but at this point, we have no idea what our future really holds.  There are things that appeal to me about a townhouse vs. an RV, but I have to admit that I'm sure we would all look back someday with fondness at the "year we sold our house and bought an RV" when our kids are older.  The biggest problem we are facing now is that there is just too much unknown ahead.  We are at a fork in the road.  There is a decision to be made at the bottom of this page in our personal "Choose Your Own Adventure" story.

     This morning I was reading the story of Deborah in Judges, and I saw something that I hadn't seen before.  The hero of the hour that actually killed the general of King Jabin's army (Sisera) was a woman named Jael.  I've read the story before, and always thought that it was a little gory imagining a woman pounding a tent stake through a man's temple to kill him.  What I never saw before was a seemingly out of place verse in Judges 4.  Verse 11 reads, "(Heber, the Kenite--the Kenites were the descendants of Moses' father-in-law Hobab--had moved away from the rest of his clan, and had been living in various places as far away as the Oak of Sa-anannim, near Kedesh.)".  I thought it was odd that this was in the middle of the paragraph about the army of Israel fighting off Sisera's army at Kedesh.  Also, why was it in parathensis?  Later on in verse 17 it all makes sense that it was setting the scene when it says that "Meanwhile, Sisera had escaped to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was a mutual-assistance agreement between King Jabin of Hazor and the clan of Heber."  It struck me that had Heber (Jael's husband)  not decided to leave his clan and move around to "various places" that Jael wouldn't have been in the right spot to fulfill her destiny by conquering Sisera. It doesn't say why Heber moved around to various places, but it does hint at an agreement of assisting King Jabin.  Maybe he moved where the work was...this is just a guess on my part.

     This made me start thinking that perhaps God orchestrated Heber's destiny (and need to move around) to also help Jael find and fulfill her destiny.  If Jael had said, "That's it, Heber!  I'm sick and tired chasing YOUR dream!  I hate moving around all the time, and living in a tent!!  We don't even have any family around to help us!", she would've never fulfilled her destiny.  Maybe by following my husband to "various places", God will help me to find and fulfill my destiny.  Knowing this history in the Bible, encourages me to be more flexible with our future. There are many things about my destiny that are still vaguely fuzzy, but I know that I'm at peace and glad to be following my hubby.  My hands are up as our roller coaster of life is climbing this next hill, and we're laughing together about all the wonderful possibilities to come.