This month has been hectic for my husband and me because we are moving. Our comfortable little home on the coast will be traded for a cramped apartment in the busy city of Toronto. We joke and say that we’ve become tired of the mountains and ocean and need to get away.
The truth of why we are leaving is because we believe God is asking us to go.
The first time I heard someone say God was speaking to them, I was frustrated at the vague description of their encounter. What do you mean God was speaking? Did you hear a loud booming voice? Did you see words floating in the clouds?
I’m not going to leave you hanging and am happy to explain what I mean when I say we believe God is asking us to move to Toronto – and will be honest that it has been a bit of a journey.
The journey began when my husband had a conversation with friends about Toronto and the opportunities for work there. The exchange wasn’t particularly meaningful, but he left with an unexplainable hunch that he needed to move.
After putting it off for a while, he spoke with me about the city and immediately, I felt a peace about moving there – we love where we live, so jumping at the chance to move isn’t like us.
I can only explain it as a deep sense of certainty.
Since then, we have spoken with close friends and have had similar responses. We had a pastor at our church pray for us (not mentioning the city) and afterwards he said that as he was praying, he had an image in his mind of my husband and I standing in front of a city that he recognized as Toronto.
It seemed like more than just a coincidence.
There is a verse in the Bible that I find myself coming back to lately. It speaks about the deep knowledge of God and the way He knows what we need even when we have no idea.
“If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves ...That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”
We are going to Toronto because we believe God has a plan for us that requires us to be there. We don’t know what it is, but as a Christian, I believe God’s plan for me is better than any plan I could make.
So here we go, armed with nothing more than a carload of gifts from our wedding, suitcases full of clothes, and the great anticipation of God’s plan for our future.