If you know me at all, you know that I tend to be quite organized, and I operate better if I have things organized.  (My dear wife is the same way.)  Another way to state this would be to say that I am most comfortable and efficient if the things in my life are settled.

It’s not just a practical matter.  It’s a mental and emotional one.  If some aspect of my life is unsettled, then I tend to feel somewhat unsettled.  Ditto for my wife.  (And probably most people, if we’re honest!)

Imagine then my wife’s and my current state of mind when it seems as if almost nothing in our lives is settled!

Our Tacoma house of 30 years went on the market this week.  We’ve never sold a house before, and we have no idea what to expect in the process or how long it will take to sell.  That’s rather unsettling.

Our Clare house still has moving boxes scattered about (though strategically situated out of crucial paths), no pictures hung, and multiple important tasks to be done.  Not really settled there either.

And, of course, we are paying bills in both places.  Not only unsettling, but undesirable!

Furthermore, my wife and I are now living alone (with each other!) for the first time in over 30 years!  That’s certainly different.  Nice, but still somewhat unsettling as well.

Meanwhile, we’re both beginning new full-time ministries – starting over after lengthy terms of service elsewhere in God’s Kingdom.  That’s certainly unsettling.

It’s a new state (or at least basically new after living away for 33 years), new city, new neighborhood, new congregations and schools, new obligations, new schedules, new places to go for shopping and personal care … and the list goes on and on.  None of which is negative, but all of which is rather unsettling.

On top of this all, almost every one of our children have, or are, or will be shortly, undergoing significant transitions in their lives.  So in addition to our disarray, there is our children’s as well.

In fact, there may not be another time in our lives where my wife and I have felt less settled than right now. 

Perhaps you are also at a season in your life that you find unsettling?  Certainly you have experienced times like this as well.  Perhaps relationship situations, job issues, health challenges, or other significant changes.  And when we are traversing through those storms of life, it is rather … unsettling.  And we don’t tend to function as well in times like that.

I don’t claim to have conquered my discomfort at being discombobulated. But I do know what I am leaning upon through it.  The places where the Lord has settled me!

Namely, his awesome pronouncement; his constant and guiding presence; and his most significant promise.

As unsettled and unstable as key aspects in our lives may be, there are some ways we, God’s children, are absolutely settled.

First, there is God’s awesome pronouncement that as spiritually filthy as we may be, the Lord has made us pure and clean through Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. 

‘“Come now, let us settle the matter,”’ says the Lord. ‘“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”’ (Isaiah 1:18).

Furthermore, our God has settled around us and is always with us, holding us and guiding us.

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there;  if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10).

And finally the Lord’s most significant promise is stated repeatedly; his children are settled into his heaven after an ongoing, unsettled life on earth.  Perhaps the passage most fitting to this discussion is shared in the faith chapter of the Bible:

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. [i.e. unsettled!] People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16).

As unsettled as we may feel or even be, we are absolutely rock-solid in the most significant aspects of our lives.  Oh, the joy of being settled in the Lord by the Lord!