Four months ago, we moved from Wisconsin to back home where I grew up. It’s been both a dream and an adjustment after 8 years away. The house we bought took close to three weeks to fix up, and during that time, we lived with my parents. We’d put twelve-hour days in on the house, and I’d bring my work to do while walls of paint dried.

One morning, I began my quiet drive to the house as the sun was coming up. I passed our new church with anticipation, where Hunter would be working in the coming weeks. After several minutes, I saw the church I grew up in, then the entrance to the Baptist camp where I had worked for three years during summers home from college. Before that, I was a camper and eventually a counselor for years. Church potlucks were held in the dining hall there. Nelsen family gatherings were hosted a time or two on those grounds.

I drove beyond the camp and came upon Lake Springfield Christian Assembly, where I attended two summers as a pre-teen. As a newlywed, I drove to LSCA every Friday morning before dawn to attend Gather, a time for women to be in the quiet, together, and with God. The ordinary and the pivotal moments of my spiritual formation had happened at all of these places, in different seasons.

Further on, to my right I passed the lane where my friend Kate lived. Kate’s house always smelled like the coziest parts of Fall to me and was a place of belonging during seasons of change. My creativity was encouraged and adventure was always to be pursued at Kate’s house on the lake. Kate’s mom was warm and kind. She was the kind of woman who loved and savored every season of motherhood, and she always had a camera. Kate was quiet and she made me laugh. We were all happy at Kate’s house and I have albums to show for it.

Beyond the lake was the high school I did not attend, but spent many Friday nights at its football games. My youth group friends all went there, and sometimes I wished I had too. But they welcomed me as their own and that will always mean something. By the time I pulled into my new driveway, I was overwhelmed at the history one ten-minute drive can hold. I am who I am because of the time I once spent in all of these places. I’m home. Even now, I still can’t believe it.

The evidence of God revealing himself to me in the big and small places of my upbringing is found along Iron Bridge Road. My faith was formed walking through the woods and overlooking the lake with friends. And it’s still being formed. Kate doesn’t live on Idlewilde anymore. I haven’t been to those old campgrounds in a decade. Moving home fills me with gratitude for where I came from and what shaped me and it also reminds me that I’m a beginner again.

Friendships here are new. Getting to know people is a process. Discovering places of belonging is not always obvious or instant. Uncovering depth in relationships requires saying “yes” to showing up over and over. If I learned anything from my time in Wisconsin it’s that sometimes finding people that get you in all your forms is rare. Mileage with people sometimes has to be made before you can get to that point. But what a gift it is when you do. And for whatever time you have together.

It’s a funny feeling to see the nostalgia and newness in the same place. To miss the past and the friends that made it memorable. Yet knowing the best days are also ahead. To long for what has not been felt or experienced yet. Life is not always so linear. It’s complex and it’s nuanced. Good takes time.

When I think of walking with Jesus, I think of the patience he has for all my intricacies and walking contradictions. Man, have I been an elaborate mess in this season trying to lead my heart well through all the change. I think about the thirty years Jesus spent on Earth before his three years of public ministry and the Creation story that made his human life possible. I think about practicing the presence of God as Brother Lawrence did and the investment Jesus made in a relationship with me first. Good takes time.

Four months is a short amount of time to measure progress in starting a new chapter. Multiple times a week I make that ten-minute drive and I’m reminded that what the Lord did once, he can do again. Friendships will form. Faith will be fostered. All I need to know for now is that the Jesus I walk with is good. And his goodness transcends my human understanding of his time.

Take care & take heart,