Space Shifting

I write this blog as I begin a new venture in a new home, a new city, and a new church. It still takes me by surprise that I've ended up here having been so at a loss as to what my future held only a few months ago. Somewhere, through all of the disorientation, I took steps and made choices that brought me here, yet all the while I was becoming less and less anxious about my future and the direction I was headed in. So here I am surprised and relocated.


Why 'Space Shifting'? I hear you ask. As I pondered writing about my move into this new chapter of my life, the phrase 'space shifting' wouldn't go out of my head. For some reason I felt this was to be the title of my next blog. So out of curiosity I went to find out if this was an actual term for something, and if so, what that 'something' was!


Space shifting is apparently a very new term that denotes the conversion of digital media (i.e. TV programmes) from one viewing format to another. Many of you will probably be regular connoisseurs of shape shifting technology, watching your favourite shows on your laptop or phone rather than the traditional television screen.


Having discovered that this term does have meaning, it struck me that these two words mean a lot to me right now in regards to my faith. I've left my friends and family for the first time and I've left my church for the first time. Despite me moving away geographically and beginning a new walk of life, I'm not really 'leaving' them all behind - my new change in course does not make me any less of a family member. My friendships remain intact! Despite me moving (the format changing) my relationships and connections to those people aren't any less real.

Space shifting applies to an even greater extent to my relationship with God. My world and environment have completely changed, I'm out of my comfort zone, I feel as though I'm a bit out of my depth. And yet, God is still streaming into my life every moment of every day. Inevitably there are times when I do feel that I'm out of touch with some of my friends and family, that somehow I'm missing out. But with God, he's right here with me where ever I go: "...For the Lord your God goes with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deut. 31:6)


My life circumstances change all of the time, there are emotional ups and downs, good stuff happens and some not so good stuff happens. Yet while circumstances change, God moves into each new situation. I find myself in a new city, but God is here - the very same God I had at home. God is transforming me all the time to become more and more like his Son. The essence of me remains the same, I'm still Deborah and I'm still unique. But the things that aren't so perfect, the things that get a bit worse for wear through life's challenges and upheavals, those things are made new and perfect. It's as though I'm one of the original TV sets with a few channels and poor reception, and gradually I'm being transformed over time into the most perfect TV set imaginable. I'm still at heart, a TV set (Debs), and I'm still being fed and sustained by the same electricity (The Holy Spirit - God) but my format is often changing.


Space shifting when viewed in this context is something that everyone experiences, but it's comforting to know that despite the impermanence and instability that the term suggests, when you know God and can recognise the move of Him in your life, it actually points to His inherently permanent and never-changing nature.