Well, that is not really the point of this entry. It does have a lot to do with it but still not the main point. Let's get going here.
I moved to Nashville, TN in March of 2005. I thought it was just going to be for a short time while I worked on my music career. I think my family knew better. It was a bittersweet moment the night I headed out to Music City. I still remember all of the family going out to the driveway in front of my "stuffed to the rafters" Mitsubishi Galant and gathering around to pray with me. We cried. I mean cried. However, my family was also very excited for me to venture out of this athletic world in which I had lived in for so long and into this new music world which I've had a passion for since I wore diapers and danced in the closet where we kept our record player. This was the first time I had lived more than 30 minutes away from any family member. Nashville is 35 minutes away from Nampa, Idaho. Wait. Did I say 35 minutes? I meant 2000 miles.
It's not that I couldn't live on my own, it's that I had to live on my own. No calling mom and dad for some extra money. No more taco Tuesdays. No more carpools to work which was only 5 minutes away in Idaho. I had to grow up (Jamie just said a very quiet "amen").
My dad would call to see how things were going. My mom would call every once in a while to see if I knew where the closest hospital was. My sister would call to see if I found a church yet. My brother would call my sister and Dad :)(I know you love me Torrey). They kept in touch.
When I called it was, "Hey dad, how do you fix this," or "mom, what does it mean if this hurts and I can't taste anything", or "hey dad...help." My calls were out of desperation or need or if I was lonely.
Six years later it is a different story. My dad and I talk all the time. I will call him on my drive home or on a lunch break or if I am home on Saturday while Jamie is at class (getting her masters in teaching...go Jamie!!!). Don't get me wrong, I still call him for advice all the time but now we just talk about life. And now it's a two-way conversation. Lately I find myself making similar jokes or using the same analogies. The more we talk the more I understand life from his perspective. And the older I get the more I realize how much I do not know and how much he does know. He has just had so much more life experience and I trust him. We still debate certain issues like blended worship services vs two separate worship services, ya know...weird stuff that worship pastors talk about. It has gotten to a point now where sometimes I don't have to call my dad to ask him advice, I know what he would do because I know him, because I talk to him so much.
If only I was like that with my heavenly Father. I do go to Him in prayer a lot. It used to just be out of necessity or desperation. Now I try to talk with Him all the time but it is still typically from a selfish standpoint. I am getting to the point where I make decisions He would make because I just know Him. God has transforming power and He has been changing me, making me new. I used to only know about Him and I would do things because that is what I felt He wanted me to do. I am slowly understanding that the more I know Him, the more I become like Him. The more I become Christlike, the easier it is to make decisions and treat people the way Jesus would because I am like Him, because I am talking to Him more.
My sister used to tell me, "You are turning into dad!" and I would cringe. Now when she says it I smile and I think of my dad and the amazing man of God he is.
"We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
Romans 6:4
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