Forevermore
If you had told me last May that within the next four months, we would be moving yet again to a different city because I would be willingly returning to higher education and taking a 50% pay cut, I would have laughed in your face. I had, after all, just gotten promoted, and that came with a very nice raise. I had a horrible commute, a stressful job, and very little work–life balance, but I was making a lot of money in a place where money rules everything. We were prepared to spend our life in Rockville, or Silver Spring, or North Bethesda—one of those places just north of DC—most likely in the little house we would soon be purchasing with an exorbitant budget for a starter home. We were on track to save up the 20% down payment and make Dave Ramsey very proud.
And then I saw it: the job posting. The job that, from the moment I read the posting, I knew would be mine, because I would do anything to make it mine.
And so I made it mine.
And we moved again, for the fifth time in two-and-a-half years. And we fell in love with Annapolis and our new church and the amazing people in our new church and the Bay and my job and the amazing people at my job.
And so, just recently, we closed on a house here in Annapolis. (And yes, Dave Ramsey would still be proud!)
And now, we’re raising support to further the Gospel in Japan this summer.
Yeah.
JAPAN.
If you had told me a year ago that we would be raising $5k for a mission to Japan next summer, I probably would have laughed in your face at that, too. After all, that time, energy, and money would most definitely have been best put toward our future home.
A year ago, I think my life was ruled by numbers.
But the Lord didn’t like that, so He dramatically changed our situation and our environment, and He used the experience to change our hearts.
God is good at working in unexpected ways in our lives. Thankfully, however, God Himself does not change. His attributes and His Word are constant and are to be expected. God has made Himself and His Will known, so that we can respond to Him with what is expected of us.
What is ruling your life? Is it money? Is it the American dream? Is it happiness, pleasure, the desire to just be a hermit?
Are you happy? Or do you have joy? (There’s a big, big difference.)
Are you spending quality time in His presence? Because in His presence, there is fullness of joy, and pleasures forevermore.
These are questions I need to ask myself every day because I know that I won’t always feel this close to Him. I know that I’ll lose my spiritual high at some point. And, you know, maybe that’s a good thing. We can’t know what it’s like to be close to God unless we’re reminded of what it’s like to be far away.
Thankfully, we serve a God who is unmoving, yet still moves with us. Weirton, Collegeville, Morgantown, Greenbelt, Silver Spring, Rockville, Arnold, Annapolis.
Forevermore.
- Going Home - July 1, 2020
- Sufficient to Sustain - December 4, 2019
- Flying Solo - June 5, 2019
Best wishes in your newest and unexpected locale! You must’ve prayed, “Lord, whatever Your will for me, I wanna be in it!” Bloom where thou art planted. ?????
What an adventure life is when you have God’s perspective. “God is good at working in unexpected ways in our lives.” Not expecting just your well-made plans, but totally open to God’s. On to Japan!!
I really enjoyed this report and am so excited for you.
“Thankfully, we serve a God who is unmoving, yet still moves with us.”
I am at a point in my life where I’m waiting for the next thing. I’m itching for a goal, a dream, direction forward while still trying to be faithful in what I have been assigned to do right now.
Through it all, moving or standing still, it’s nice to know God doesn’t change.