Sometimes He Moves Quickly

Courtney Vallejo ponders how quickly and thoroughly the Lord can turn around a family's plan with His bigger and better one.

How many times do I hear myself saying, “Come on God, please, just hurry up!” Can any of you relate? Just to be clear, I’m not a patient person. I try, really. I give it a valiant effort, but I find myself turning right back into the impatient toddler. My family and I have been in a season of waiting. A few months ago, I shared our most recent journey with Catholicmom.com, in the article Where to Now, Lord? My husband has been in the process of a job change and we’ve been waiting on the Lord to show us where He’s sending us.

We thought we knew: we got ready to plant in the area we’d been in for the last two years, and one night my husband got an email. It was Father’s Day weekend and we had surprised his dad with a visit. The next day was our anniversary, so we decided to have dinner with our family instead of going out. My sister-in-law and I were taking orders for plates of leftovers and I swear my husband said, “I’ll take two ribs, some salad, and I just got a job at Oklahoma State University!” Shocked, but not shocked, because I know how the Lord can work, I just turned around and went to get the ribs.

Exactly one week later, we were packing up our truck and travel trailer, to drive out to Oklahoma, to begin creating our life out there. Admittedly, I’ve only been to Oklahoma once, about twenty years ago, when we stopped at the Oklahoma City bombing memorial (which is incredible if you ever get the chance,) and then continued driving across the country.

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Arriving at our new town at lunchtime, we didn’t waste any time and were meeting with a realtor at 1 PM to begin looking for houses. Luckily, in that small town, there weren’t a lot of options, so we saw everything in our price range and had one picked out one to offer on by the end of the night. The community is lovely and so welcoming, and we continued to be shocked at how everything is falling into place. I often felt like I was simply standing back and watching a movie, waiting to see what puzzle piece would fit into the story next.

The biggest delight was the Catholic community. As we’ve moved from town to town during our marriage, the heart of the move has always been finding our new parish and our Catholic community. Being Catholic allows us to go somewhere new, but in a sense we already know the community. Our faith allows us to share beliefs, to share traditions, and to provide that sense of familiarity, even in a town where I couldn’t tell you where the local grocery store is, or if they have a Target!

A new Associate Pastor also moved to our parish that week, and at Mass that Sunday, he reflected on the Gospel reading for the day, Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20. The main message was that the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few. I feel like God reminded me that He sends us exactly where we are to go, to continue the mission of the Church and to continue in our path to sainthood. Our priest reminded us that sometimes the Lord calls us to go somewhere quickly and enter into the community immediately.

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Our faith allows us to share beliefs, to share traditions, and to provide that sense of familiarity, even in a town where I couldn’t tell you where the local grocery store is! #catholicmom

As we left the town after 5 days, I reflected on all we had done, we had house in escrow, a new work community and a parish with friends that we’re looking forward to seeing once we return with the U-haul in a few weeks. I think it’s safe to say we’re getting to the new place quickly and entering in immediately. But if you could pray for all the escrows, we’d really appreciate it! I’d prefer to have a place to unload the U-haul on the other end!