There are few things that I love more than when a well-thought out plan comes together in the end. As a huge part of God’s plan has been revealed to me in recent months, I have become extremely reflective as I remember the pieces He had to put together to get me here. I could start way back when God told me to change my major and to stop my pursuit of law school, but for the sake of your time, I’ll skip ahead to the more recent happenings.
I started teaching middle school seven years ago. My career has had its ups and downs, but for the most part, I would tell you that I loved most days of my job. Three years ago, I hit a bit of a rocky patch as I experienced my first “holy discontent” with teaching. God moved me closer to my family and provided another amazing teaching job. However, the church He wanted me to be a part of was an hour away from my job. Honestly, for three years, I would have said that was an obstacle, but I see now how that was only a piece of God’s plan coming together.
Because I was an hour away from my church, I was not able to get involved with the student ministry like I had anticipated. My passion had always been driven by student ministry and being around teenagers. However, the distance forced me to take a different role. I began working with volunteers in our student ministry: recruiting, training, equipping, caring for, loving on, etc. And without me knowing it, my passion began to slowly shift.
About a year ago, my pastor, Perry Noble, asked the question, “What makes you lose sleep at night?” My immediate answer was working with teenagers, but that answer just didn’t feel right. So, ironically enough, I lost sleep over pondering this question and realized that my heart wasn’t just for students anymore.
Fast forward to this school year, back in September I began to feel my second “holy discontent” and began praying that God would show me my next move. Fully expecting Him to wait until the last minute, He totally knocked my socks off when he provided His answer back in January. That was when I was presented with the opportunity to leave teaching and to begin a position at my church working with volunteers. So…after a season of intense prayer and some middle-of-the-night conversations with God, I get what’s He’s been up to. I see how this set of dots connect.
Right now, I am in the bittersweet season of closing the door to one chapter of my life and stepping into something brand new. Something that will stretch me like I’ve never been stretched and pull me in ways that I’m not sure I’m real comfortable with. But as I see God move at NewSpring Church every single week, I am totally overwhelmed with excitement that He would chose me to be a part of what He’s doing. So, I ask you to pray for me these days…pray that packing up my classroom won’t bring too much stress and that moving into a brand new phase of life will bring such a sense of peace. Pray that I will let this season be a reminder that God does know exactly what He’s doing and that that trust will spur further obedience in this plan He’s got for me.
Super excited about this next step in your journey and definitely praying for you!
You are gonna do awesome!! So stoked to hear about your new role in what God is doing at NewSpring. Yay God!!!