I was born and raised in Texas, and I never planned to leave. Even when God began clearly speaking to me about my willingness to accept a change, I didn't think it would involve leaving. He was prompting me for a new adventure—something significant that he wanted to do with my life. Excited, I shared with family and friends and began to watch and see what would happen. For a long time, nothing did.
I never believed God would take three years to show me what he meant. As time went on, I felt foolish. There were times I really doubted if "change" was ever going to happen. One thing I did know is that I was to be diligent where I was, being faithful to what I did know while I waited to find what I didn't. It was difficult to be patient when the results were so slow in coming.
During this time, my wife Jennifer and I prayed about what else we could be doing. We thought about whether I should begin graduate school, look for a new job, change something about our lifestyle—we were trying to be open to whatever God was bringing us.
The chance to host a college Bible study in our home came and we took it. Of course, college students are in the perfect place to struggle with decision making. We got lots of questions about how to know God's will and how to make the "right" decision. I found a book a professor had given me when I was in college and used it to lead a study on finding these answers, one our family really needed. Soon after, a job opportunity to work with these same students became available. I applied for the job, really thinking this might be the "change" for which we'd been waiting. But it was a no. And then another job opportunity: also a no. Looking back, each "no" prepared me a little more for the job I would eventually take. At the time, however, it was just a lot of disappointment and doubt.
Almost three years from that initial conversation with God, I got an email from my sister. She and her family attend Eagle Brook. She came across a job opening at Eagle Brook and thought I'd be interested. And I was. We agreed to follow this through and see what happened. All God could say was no, and that would lead to an eventual yes. One interview led to another, and three months later I was offered the Pastor of Groups job at Eagle Brook's Lino Lakes campus.
God had opened doors before, but then they were closed. This time, the door remained open. We knew this was the change God had been preparing, but the decision still had to be made to walk through the door or not. It's one thing to be faithful to wherever God leads in theory. It's quite another when where he leads is 1,000 miles from home, to a place wholly unfamiliar. We were leaving the people and home we had loved for over 20 years for a people and place we did not know.
We had been sincere in our prayers, but the stakes for faithfulness around this decision had been low up to this point. With an official job offer, those stakes became drastically higher. We looked at the people and home we loved and knew what we would be leaving. We had no idea what we would get in exchange. This was not a decision we could weigh out ourselves. Ultimately, it was God asking the same question he's asked all our lives: "Do you trust my love for you enough to follow me?" We had made a lot of small decisions when we thought nothing much was happening. And all those small, right decisions were the perfect practice for making this one big one. So we said yes.
I've been here for five months. It has been painful, yet amazing. Messy, yet beautiful. We still don't know all the ways this will change things for us. But we do know that God can be trusted. That doesn't mean things will come easily or go the way we expected. It does mean he will be with us. And our purpose has never been clearer. We just do the next right thing, however insignificant it seems, trusting that He will move our steps in His direction, even when that direction can only be seen in retrospect. We live this moment doing what we already know to do, and we do so with all of our hearts.
This decision has been enormous for us and not without sacrifice. But it has been good. It has shown us, again, that God will work outside of our comfort zones to bring his greater good.
It reminds me of the C.S. Lewis classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when a question is asked about the character of their leader:
"Is he safe?"
"Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he is good. He's the King, I tell you."
As believers, if we choose to play it safe, sometimes we miss the grandest adventure of them all.
