It doesn’t quite fit…yet

Lots of changes going on in my world. Our family moved across the country, we dropped our daughter off for her freshman year at college and I’m trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. But, hey, where better to do that last thing than in NYC?

I’m writing this from a completely over-stuffed apartment in the city. Even after getting rid of things for over six-months and storing a ton of things we just didn’t think we could part with, we still have way too much stuff for an 1100 square foot space (quite palatial by city standards) with very little closet space.

So we’re learning to live with less and to fit that “less” by using all the small-space living tricks we can find, but fit is still an issue. I pulled out my handy over-the-door rack of hooks and found that it won’t fit over our 1 3/4 inch thick doors. The simple shelves that housed shoes in our old home are too wide to fit in closets here. Our kitchen cabinets are not deep enough to hold a handful of our dishes, and I brought more than one piece of bakeware that is too big to fit in our tiny oven. And in our two bedrooms, the beds take up almost all the space–leaving little room for anything else.

Cry me a river, right? It’s the ultimate plight of the privileged to be cursed by too much stuff while living in the upper west side of Manhattan.

So, I’m working on making things fit. The clothes in the closet, the far too many gadgets in the kitchen and the almost-50-unemployed-me-who-just-sent-her-only-child-off-to-college in this new normal.

I have preached on the Isaiah text below a number of times, but always in the context of what God is doing in the church and in the world. This may be the first time I’ve looked at it as God’s word to me personally.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19

Coupled with the Proverb that I have spent a lifetime trying to master…

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

…I just might dig out of the chaos of change and a cluttered apartment to live in to the person God is calling me to be in this next chapter of life.


Rev. Anne Russ is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA), currently based in New York City. Doubting Believer provides tools and encouragement for the rollercoaster ride of your faith journey. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram and YouTube. You can also follow on TikTok. Get emails to keep up with all that is happening.

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