There are some people you just click with when you meet them. Spence is one of those guys for Trisha and me. He has guest posted at RefineUs before, and his post resonated with so many. It was a no brainer for us to ask him to speak into the topic of transitions given his life the last few months. What he has learned during transition may be exactly what God is longing to teach someone today.

Follow Spence on Twitter: @spencesmith

Check out his Blog: http://spencesmith.com

Seven Months And One Huge Transition

Smooth transitions in life are hard to come by. You never know what’s going to happen during a transition but I’m certain a couple things are happening while in transition.

One chapter is ending while another is beginning. All while right in the middle of another chapter in a different book,

Looking back at my recent transition it was both. I never really knew it would be this crazy of a journey when it started.

The Back Story…

Seven months ago, in March of 2011, I got engaged and started the process of moving from 15 years of living in Nashville/Franklin, TN area and 41 years of living in the south to living in Colorado, a state I always wanted to live in since my dad had been taking us skiing as kids.

My transition has come in different stages.

Saying good-bye to my closest friends in Franklin and Nashville at the end of May was tough, but I made the most of any time I had with my friends. Saying good-bye was bitter sweet to say the least but once I got to Colorado, the events that unfolded where some of the most exciting and most difficult months of my life.

Krissy and I immediately got to work on a few things – Me becoming a step-dad, transferring my job, planning and paying for a wedding and putting her house on the market all in the month of June. Our schedules were non-stop and I could barely keep up.

With the kids being out of school and their excitement to have me around, I went from “all the me-time in the world” to finding myself in the bathroom more than usual just to sit for a few minutes to gather myself.

I jokingly say that and I’m thankful for two teenagers who are excited to hang out with me, but trying to work from “home” and do everything we needed to do and whatever the kids wanted to do was really stirring my world up…. And for good reason… My world wasn’t used to having others live that closely in it.

Once July hit, things were leveling out a bit. Plans were coming together, boundaries between work time and family time were becoming more routine and the house was getting shown almost daily.

August came and a huge answer to pray had happened. We had an offer on her house and had found the house we wanted to buy, but as August rolled through we got to the end of the month learning that the buyers for her house had to move out of state. Back to square one.

Original plan had been to move into another home the week of our wedding. But what happened next was clear evidence that God had another plan.

Two weeks before our wedding, Krissy had an emergency appendectomy. Yep… two weeks. We suddenly realized the house plans had been put on hold for this specific reason. Moving into another house, recovering from surgery and a wedding all in the same week would have been a train wreck and I’m pretty sure God knew that.

In September we got married, went on our honeymoon and a week later got another offer on the house. We have since moved into another home and I’m just now starting to feel settled from my move to Colorado… five months later.

Looking Back…

We moved on October 28 and it was that day that I had in my mind to mark it as the end of the transition. It was the day we closed on both homes and moved into the new house.

Sure… I have the learning curve of fatherhood and grafting my way into this family. Not to mention cultivating our marriage.

But there are other things that will still be there to work on and process through. With transition, you never know what will pop up and something always does. It’s the other chapter in another book that is still pages away from its last page.

This unexpected chapter was walking through loss that came at the most unexpected time. While Oct 28 is marked as the end of transition, the loss will still be there and that is something no transition will immediately heal.

Another chapter is one that deals with me finding my way through a family in the Indian culture (My wife is from India). I’m learning all the in’s and out’s of family dynamics through the filter of cultural norms, language, expectation and figuring out how to navigate it all to honor my wife as well as her family and some of the traditions that are deeply ingrained in their cultural up bringing.

Here’s what I’ve learned along the way.

While we have gotten through the transition, I don’t think I do transition well. In fact, who does? I can do life well when I’m settled and in my groove but we never set our sights on living life in the period of transition. Transition is usually short term and meant to have an end so we do whatever we can to get to the end of it. Why?

Because transition is not we consider to be our normal way of life.

The other thing I learned is this.

Prior to this move my relationship with God was not where it should have been at all. I was missing that whole part of about trust, provision and making the right decisions that would impact my future. I really thought I had most things figured out but I didn’t. Other the years I’ve made decisions that I didn’t think needed God’s input or guidance and it has cost me in many ways.

But this too turned around.

I had to make a decision to trust God with my life again.

Like I knew I should.

It doesn’t mean I was getting everything right from then on out. But what it gave me was the ability to recognize that God was working in and around my life in ways that got me… and Krissy… through this long transition.

A big part of the influence came from Krissy and her strong faith in believing God would help us with all the details and speed bumps. Which is exactly what happened and she was a great example for me to see where I needed to step up to the plate.

There’s no doubt that in a time of transition, believing that God is really in control is  hard to do, but worth it when you see the examples of things happening that could have only been worked out through His timing.

But you know what? I know there are people out there trying to get through the longest transition of their lives with no end in sight and I have this piece of advice.

Most… not all… but most of life’s transitions can come to an end when we have decided there needs to be an end.It’s like being happy. Happiness is a choice only you can choose to do and happiness doesn’t come from the actions of others but your own action of deciding to live a life of happiness. No one can do it for you. Thus, we are the only ones to blame when we aren’t happy.

When we decide to come to an end of the transition. We take steps to get there. When we choose happiness, we take steps to get there.

When we decide to trust in God, we take steps to get there.

If you are in transition and you have been there for a long time, let me encourage you to set a goal to work your way out of the transition so you can settle into the life you have waiting for you.

You will know when it’s right for you, but my point it… You have to make the decision to do it.

Thanks Justin and Trisha for letting me ramble on here. This might be the longest post i’ve ever written, but it’s the first time I’ve put the past seven months into words like this.

Question: What steps do you take to work yourself through transition?

Our life has been a constant transition. If you know our story, you know that we have moved more in our 16 years of marriage than most people move in a lifetime. Most of the time, the transition has been something I have chosen and talked Trisha into along the way. Some of those transitions have been God things and some of them have been ego-trips for me. All of those transitions have come with a price.  Some of them have come with a pay off.

We are in a different type of transition these days. We finally feel at home in Nashville. We finally feel content in how God is using us at Cross Point. We finally feel like we are developing community and building friendships. The transition we are facing is not one of our choosing.

We came face to face with this transition on Halloween night. For the past six years we have had a tradition of trick or treating with our boys and then sitting around a fire pit and eating dinner together. Usually it is white chicken chili that we eat together. This year was to be no different. We got the firewood ready. We made chili in anticipation. It was set to be a great night.

That afternoon, Micah texts: my friends are having a party tonight. Can I go? Ten minutes later Elijah texts: my friends are having a party tonight, I’ve got a ride there and home…can I go? What about trick or treating together? (We said to our 15 and 12 year old) So we let the boys enjoy the night with their friends. I took Isaiah around our neighborhood trick or treating while Trisha sat at home around the fire pit by herself, handing out candy. It was pitifully sad.

Our kids are growing up. We usually enjoy this aspect of our lives. But the transition we are making is one we can’t control or slow down. It is happening. We are trying to learn to embrace it and not resent it. We are trying to learn to value the age of our kids rather than wish they were younger. It is hard.

We have asked a few of our friends that are all in different places in life to share their season of transition with you this week. It is going to be a powerful week and we are confident God is going to show up for so many of us this week. Be sure to join us each day as we talk about transitions.

Here is the schedule for the week:

Tuesday: Spence Smith

Wednesday: Lindsey Nobles

Thursday: Wes Howard

Friday: Jenni Clayville

What transition are you facing today? How are you handling it?

Is it possible to live most of your life as a Christian and get it wrong? It was for me. For years, I said that I believed things about God, but lived my life as if I didn’t. I believed that God was in control, yet I acted like I was. I believed that God had the authority to guide my decisions, my finances, my marriage, my relationships…but so often in my life, I chose my way, spent my money, controlled my marriage, built my relationships. Here is what is wack…when things didn’t go the way that I thought they should go, I’d just work harder, try harder, expend more energy, do better at living exactly how I was living.

I think we are totally good to trust in Jesus for our eternity, we just don’t want to hear from him till until we get there. We know he has the power to save us, we just don’t really believe He’s better at leading our lives as we are. This way of living destroyed my life, my marriage, my ministry and almost cost me my relationship with God.

I am guest posting today for Marni Arnold. Continue reading HERE:

In February 2009, Justin and I made the decision to begin writing about the destruction of our marriage. We launched our 8 Things that Destroyed Our Marriage Series, Valentines week. We had no idea that our blog would reach so many people, would lead us to start a non-profit ministry and would connect us with so many people from around the world. We just wanted to be faithful to share our story of hope and redemption…God has done the rest. We spend a lot of our time talking to couples who have had their marriage fall apart. They are broken, they are hurting, many are on life support and some don’t recover.

It’s hard to find the right balance between having a healthy marriage and a healthy ministry. There’s this constant battle to cheat one over the other. In the midst of this battle, there is usually one thing that puts us on opposite pages with our husband. The calendar can change. Our seasons of life can change, but this ONE THING remains in the middle of our relationship.

I’m excited to share today at Leading and Loving It. You can read the rest of this post and comment by CLICKING HERE.

I’ve always been a fan of second chances. I’ve needed about 1000 second chances through out my lifetime. I am in a sense the king of second chances. A famous phrase for me growing up was “Just give me one more chance.”

• The first time I came home late and got grounded, I pleaded with my parents, “Give me one more chance.”
• The first time I got pulled over when I was sixteen years old and knew I was going to get a ticket, I begged the officer, “Please give me one more chance.”
• The time I overslept in college and missed a mid-term exam, I remember crying to my professor, “Please Mr. Clymer, give me one more chance.”
• When I got caught drinking at a bar my sophomore year of bible college, I sat in the dean of student’s office and bargained with him, “If you will just give me one more chance.”
• When I failed a class and was on the verge of not being academically ineligible to play basketball, I found myself at the mercy of the registrar “Please, give me one more chance.”

I’m guest posting at Jenni Clayville’s site today as she and her husband Brian celebrate 10 years of 2nd Chances. Read the rest of the post HERE:

There are certain encounters and friendships that you just know are God-ordained. Our relationship with Brian and Jenni Clayville is that type of friendship. Trisha and I met Brian and Jenni at the Exponential Conference almost two years ago. Since then, God has grown our friendship and allowed Brian and Jenni to encourage our heart and speak life into our vision for RefineUs. We are honored to have them as friends and are so very proud of them for the step of faith they are just days away from taking. To find our more about their TRANSITION…go here. Their story will inspire you and challenge you to trust God for more.

You can find their blogs here: Brian Clayville Jenni Clayville

You can follow them on Twitter: @brianclayville @jclayville

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My first 20 years of life was spent under a roof of overbearing control and dysfunction. I learned if I could level out the flux of change, I was better off. The more my surroundings stayed constant, the better I could deal with the unexpected. The more I prepared my harness of control, the less the eggshells would crack under my feet.

I learned CHANGE would hurt me. Change was bad.

So I lived my safe Christian life. I thought if I stayed safe, I could protect my heart and keep it from being trampled on. I kept my heart from everything. From my husband… and even from God. The only thing I fought for was control. Man, was I feisty when it came to control. And it worked… until I lost ALL control and broke myself.

Something crazy/amazing/painful/exhilarating happens when you transition from being broken by other people to breaking yourself. If you’re being completely honest, your heart transitions from allowing yourself to make excuses to having nowhere… and no one left to blame.

The next year was a huge transition. Brian and I went through every.possible.emotion. Emotions I had worked my whole life to avoid. It was exhausting… but in hindsight… needed and SO good. It was the first time I looked at “change” and “transition” as a positive thing. This revelation changed everything in my life.

Brian and I started praying differently. For most of my life, though I claimed to be a Christ follower, what I was really telling God was to follow ME. God was another bystander. So our prayer changed. We prayed for Him to LEAD because the way we had lead our own lives up to this point didn’t work. We were finally submitting ourselves to really follow whenever and however He called.

Apparently this was a dangerous prayer.

Within a year, our world seemed to unravel at the seams: Brian lost multiple jobs (strange for a guy who was consistent in the financial industry for 10 years). I was let go from my job as a Worship Pastor at a local church plant in Portland. That church shut down soon after that. Our youngest son went through a medical scare and in the process, racked up the most ridiculous medical bills I have ever seen. Change was constant and transition was a promise. It seemed as if the world had it out for us. However… during this time, though we had plenty to be concerned about, we had an overwhelming peace surrounding us.

You see, all of this had to happen in order for God to prep us for our next calling. Our lives as we had known it had to unravel in order for God to weave it into His NEW creation.

In October, we accepted the call to a new adventure… 1,700 miles away from family, friends and the place we’ve called home.

Within the last five years, I’ve gone from living a safe life of comfort, predictability with no transitions to a very challenging, uncomfortable, unpredictable and transitional life. Everything in our lives (housing, finances, prayer, etc.) now depends on God and on others He places in our path.

For awhile, I fought it. What else is an OCD planning type supposed to do? All I knew was how to control my surroundings. But THIS was completely out of my control. And finally… I just let it go. God called. We answered. And we are choosing to obey no matter the cost.

And though the cost is great… the blessings in return are greater. My marriage has never been better. Our family dynamics this last year has given me more joy and laughter than the combination of the first 30 years of my life. My community is constant and reliable. And the peace… oh the PEACE. Incomparable.

So you see, CHANGE is no longer a bad thing for me. It’s what brings me peace. The change we avoid in fear is what transitions us into glory. It’s gonna hurt like hell… but the beauty and freedom in brings after the unravelling is done is completely worth it (coming from the one who’s STILL transitioning). In order to have CHANGE in your life, you must be willing to transition.

So… are you?

Are you one of those people that at an early age just knew what you wanted to do with your life? Our guest blogger today is one of those people. Alece at the tender age of 19 got a one-way ticket to Africa and never looked back. Over the next decade she would fall in love with a South African man, get married and together build an amazing ministry that would impact thousands!

But what happens when the life you’ve always dreamed of and are living comes to a crushing end? How do transition from the life you once knew to the new reality of the life your living now? I don’t think Alece really knows the answers to those questions. She is in the midst of her transition.

BUT THIS IS WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO READ WHAT SHE HAS TO SAY…

It’s always easier to share your struggle after you’re sober, or healed or reconciled. Christians so often rob one another the time and space to grieve and fight through the heart aches of life.  I’m so proud of Alece for trusting each of you with her heart today. There is no pretty bow to wrap around her story although I (Trisha) desperately want one for her. Rather, her’s is a declaration of trusting God in the midst of the pain. Sometimes simply choosing to trust HIM is the win.

You can read Alece’s Blog Here: Grit And Glory

You can follow her on Twitter: @gritandglory

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Something’s Gotta Give

Two years ago, when my husband confessed to an 18-month affair, I didn’t think things could get any worse.

And then he filed for divorce.

And I had to close the ministry I launched 13 years ago.

And I had to give up my home, my car, almost all my possessions, and move back to America. Where I currently am living out of a suitcase, in people’s guest rooms, with no income and no plan.

I’d say Transition has slapped me around pretty good.

And, being the bully that he is, Transition won’t leave me alone.

Change is my only constant. And I’ve gotta be honest…

I hate it.

It makes me want to scream. It makes me cry ugly tears. It makes me want to cuss.

I’ve lost so much to unrelenting Transition.

And — sigh — I don’t think I’ve handled it very well. I haven’t carried myself very gracefully through these changes.

I’m pretty sure I allowed Transition to steal my faith, hope, and joy along with everything else.

Something’s gotta give…

I ended 2010 so ready to kick the year to the curb. But at the stroke of midnight, things didn’t miraculously change.

And now, I find myself looking around, wondering where’s the “new” in the new year. Everything’s still the same. Only the calendar’s different.

Transition’s still taking a wrecking ball to my life. Hope still seems scarce. Tears I didn’t know I had left, keep coming. The hard days continue.

And I know they will.

So I made the decision to look for God’s hand in the midst of the hard.

My eyes have been blindfolded by Transition for too long.

I want to actively search for God in my brokenness. Seek out His beauty in my pile of ashes. Face the continual tide of change on my tip-toes, looking for God where I haven’t seen Him before.

I haven’t quite mustered up the strength to steal back my faith, hope, and joy. But I’m at least going to start looking for them. Which is more than I’ve done in a long time.

I can’t stop change from coming. I cannot.

But I can choose to remember that He holds my ever-changing life in His never-changing hand.

Take that, Transition.

In April of 2009, I bought Trisha tickets to a concert for her birthday. We were still living in Indianapolis and got to see one of her favorite artists: Natalie Grant. Opening up for Natalie that night was a familiar name and voice: Chris Sligh. We had watched him on American Idol, but more recently his song Empty Me had become a personal prayer for me. We were so blessed that night. A few months later, we came on staff at Cross Point, Chris and his wife Sarah began attending. He and I connected for breakfast and hit it off…we are both dreamers. His new record The Anatomy of Broken resonates so deeply as it describes the redemption that can be found through brokenness.

Recently, Chris and Sarah became first time parents. I asked Chris if he would share with us the transition that has taken place in his life over the past few months in becoming a parent. It is an honor to have him share today.

You can find his blog here: Chris Sligh

You can follow Chris on Twitter Here: @chrissligh

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I’m an artist.  I write songs, then I make a record, then I go on tour to make sure people hear the songs I wrote and recorded.  That is my job.  Most people live in a world ruled by 9 to 5, my job is nothing like that.  I’m more ruled by seasons than a time schedule during a day. For instance, in the Christian market (where I perform most of my shows) we are really on tour from February till May and September to Thanksgiving.  If you’re a top-flight artist or a new artist you play festivals in the summer.  If you’re a B or (more probable) C artist like I am, you write a lot during the summer and hope you’ve made enough money in the Spring to carry you through, all the while looking forward to making money in the fall.

So, with that back-story, hopefully you can understand my fear when my wife came to me last April and showed me a pregnancy test that had a plus sign on it.  I quickly did the math in my head and realized that our child would come in the middle of my biggest work period.

Yet , early on October 31, when Sarah was rushed up to an operating room for an emergency C-section and they pulled this little baby girl out of her stomach and she cried for the first time, my thoughts had nothing to do with how we would pay the bills, or that, on top of not working we were also paying for the home birth that didn’t happen as well as an emergency C-section.  My thoughts were solely on this little girl who I thought (and still think) was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on.  As tears rolled down my face I could think of nothing but how great the rest of my life was going to be (God-willing) with this little girl a part of my life.

My life is irreparably changed.  I will never be the same.  The thought processes I had before are different.  I can’t think about what is best for me anymore.  I can‘t just go buy the things I want, or even need, without taking into account what my little girl will need now – and in the future.

Am I the cliché?  Well, if you’d asked me 6 months ago, I would’ve said 100% for sure.  But now?  I don’t know.  I think it just feels right.

Has there been a transition in your life that has been a bigger change than you anticipated?

Who knew one cup of coffee could change my life. That’s what happened when I (Trisha) met our guest blogger today Sarah Markley. She openly shares her story of her affair and how God rescued her and her marriage. God brought Sarah into my life to speak healing into a wound that only her perspective could bring. I thought it would be a one-time meeting… God had other plans.

The more you get to know her the more you realize what a loyal friend she is. Yes I said loyal. She loves big and expects big love in return. Not only has she become a cherished friend but a kindred spirit. She is a reminder to me that we all fall short. There’s no one stereotype that falls into sin. Even the loyal can choose sin over God. Sarah and her husband are a beautiful example that God has the power to make you a new creation both in the little and big transitions of life.

You can find Sarah’s Blog: Sarah Markley

You can follow her on Twitter: @sarahmarkley

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Obedience: It’s Never Easy

I’ve always been the solid one.

I only live 25 miles from the place I was born and I’ve never lived further than that. I stayed at the same schools as I grew up and I spent four years at the same university. I. am. the. same.

Very little changes about me even now. I’ve had the same cell phone number for almost 10 years. I have lived in the same home for 8 and I’ve only been a member of three, count them, THREE churches from the time I was born.

It’s not hard to find me. Everyone knows where I live, where I get my nails done and what Target I find laundry detergent at.

This is the very reason why change is difficult for me.

In fact, change is not only difficult but life altering. Heart altering. Soul altering.

God hasn’t asked me to change huge things in a very long time so for that reason I’m not used to it. I like my peanut butter and banana toast the same way and please, please don’t let anyone change it.

I’m the best girl to take with you during a crisis. I’ll think straight. I’ll use the map and ask for directions. I’ll call 911. But ask me to sit quietly and calmly during months of transition and change and I’d rather try to set and cast your broken leg myself.

But 2010 has turned me into a different person.

Three months into the year my husband and I knew God was about to ask us to do something huge. Enormous. So big, for us anyway, that it would be very painful for both the two of us and for our children.

He was asking us to find a new church.

I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal to most people. But for us, moving 3000 miles away might have been easier. We would have to manually extract ourselves from the “family” we’d known for most of our lives. And the only reason was was that God was asking us to be obedient.

Obedience is never easy. And transition even harder. The worst part about this was that we were choosing it! We were choosing to be obedient knowing the loneliness, the lack of community we would undergo and the difficulty it would be for our children.  Our church family was the only home they knew.

So off we went to blaze a new path.

We’ve now been at our new church for a little over five months. Last week as we tumbled out of the car for the 10:15 service my oldest, unprovoked, looked at me and said,

“Mama. This church finally feels like home. I really like it here.”

It’s exactly what my heart needed. Yes, I stink at adapting to new situations. But I’m learning. I can figure it out and make it work if I have to. But my kids? That’s a different story. Somehow I’d made myself believe that making them adapt to change would be a disservice to them. I thought that I should surround them in a bubble of my solid-never-changeness to make them healthy individuals. I needed to keep them safe by keeping them same.

I was wrong.

It was precisely that that made me so fearful of change in the first place.

What I understand now is that helping my daughters to transition in a healthy way through a life change is a good thing; it gives them skills that I don’t think I had the chance to develop when I was younger.

Bringing my girls along as we live the new road of adaptation and transition is just one more way to build their character. And I can’t help but think that the changes of 2010 were just a warm-up for how God will ask us to be obedient in 2011.

I’m excited for the adventure of the new year even if that means a wonderfully unstable, beautifully transitional existence.

How do you handle transition? Do you embrace it or avoid it?

It is amazing how God has used social media to introduce us to friends with a common mission and passion. Trisha and I met Crystal through Twitter and blogging. It didn’t take long to realize how passionate each of us were about helping people find freedom and hope. It is an honor to have Crystal share with us today about a very significant transition that she has made in her life recently.

Crystal is founder and executive director of Dirty Girls Ministries, a 501c3 non-profit ministry helping women struggling with pornography and sexual addiction. Founded in February 2009, the desire of Dirty Girls Ministries is to break through the stigmatic barriers that are keeping women in bondage to this addiction. Crystal has used the experience gained from her own 8-year pornography addiction to counsel hundreds of women as well as writes and speaks in various venues on the topic. Her book, Dirty Girls Come Clean (Moody Publishers) will release on April 1, 2011.

You can follower her on Twitter: @crystalrenaud

You can find her Blog: Dirty Girls Ministries

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How do I put into words something that doesn’t make sense on paper?

On January 3, 2011 I submitted my resignation from a job I’ve loved and have had for almost seven years . . . in order to pursue my own ministry as full-time Director of Dirty Girls Ministries.

While the decision to resign from my job this month catapults me into a huge life transition, I know that I have been “in transition” for quite some time as God has been preparing me for this new ministry.

When I started my job I had just turned 19 and was less than 6 months sober from an 8-year-long addiction to pornography. No one (except one person) even knew I had struggled in that capacity and I planned to keep it that way.

But a few years later, following the news of my former pastor & mentor’s infidelities, my eyes were opened to the sexual brokenness of those you’d never suspect. And I began to come to terms with my past as a sex addict and God’s desire to restore those lost years of my life.
No more hiding.

I would soon begin leading recovery groups for women with pornography and sexual addiction at my church. Just as a volunteer in our counseling department.

But over the last three years, God has given me glimpses into what it could be to do this ministry full-time. He did so by providing opportunities to shine and thrive in the role of ministry director.

These experiences led me to write a book (releasing in April) and establish Dirty Girls Ministries an official not-for-profit-ministry last Fall.

Not something I thought I’d ever do.

And yet with each opportunity, the more restless with my 9-5 life I became. And the more my heart fell deeper in the love with the new life of ministry God was ushering me into.

By day I was well-liked church communications girl. But on nights and weekends I was counselor, author, speaker . . . and utterly exhausted.

I knew resigning was an inevitable part of my near future. I knew this new ministry was my God-given passion and I could no longer be married to it and my day job.

And yet I cowered in fear and battled my pride for nearly a year.

About whether I was really hearing God right,

About what it would be like to quit my job and still go to church there after so long,

About how I’d be perceived for asking for donations not just for the ministry, but also in order for me to live day to day,

About where I’d go if I did quit but this whole ministry just fail right out of the gate.

ETC.

How was I supposed to just walk away with nothing?

The last time I resigned from a job, I didn’t care about it at all. My resignation letter was a post-it note with the word “adios” on it letting my boss know I was going on a mission trip to Mexico and I would be leaving the job.

But I was 18 and I was wreckless.

Now that I am a 26-year-old single woman—to walk away from a steady salary, retirement, life insurance, medical insurance (and a job I am really, really good at) to pursue a ministry with no real guarantees for success—doesn’t make sense.

In fact, it can appear just as wreckless.

Not to mention I don’t even have my own car right now.

But what does make sense is placing my trust in a sovereign God that since meeting Him 10 years ago. . . hasn’t let me down once.

3 weeks from today, for the first time in seven years, I will awake not as an employee of my church, but on day one of total dependence on God and others.

And while I am nervous about the unknown, I know He is there waiting for me to join Him.

It is scary. It is wonderful.

It is wonderfully scary.