Many people have expressed to us over the last few months how difficult it would be for them to step out and to leave their jobs, routines and comfortable places behind, but let me reframe this thought. While our steps have been made in faith, they’ve also been made in the certainty that this is God’s plan, not ours, and made in response to the reoccurring affirmation we have been receiving that we are on the right path. For me personally, it’s the realization of what I’ve been sure God started calling me to years ago. And it’s been a beautiful thing to know we are being continually supported and encouraged by our brothers and sisters in different churches who are in turn responding to a call that God has placed on their lives to be supporters and encouragers. It’s the kind word, the thoughtful note, the smile and “holy handshake” (thanks, Bane, for that new term), the earnest prayers and the thank-yous that keep us on task when times are stressful or we’re just tired. Sure, some days it would theoretically be easier to walk away, get 9-5 jobs and just check out. But we cannot deny that the spirit of God is moving in us and is lighting the path for us. We cannot ignore the way that things have just clicked into place for us in ways we could not have foreseen. So in a way, it would be more difficult for us not to take these steps. Not taking these steps would be turning aside a call from God.

This week we are blessed with the opportunity to share with teens and adults about our calling and to visit with long-time friends. We know that God’s call for others will probably be radically different than ours and we see this as a chance to encourage the people we meet to respond to it, whether it be to serve next door, raise money for charity just by doing something they love, or minister to others in an official capacity. Whatever it is, it is something worth responding to. You never know where or how God will lead you, but it will always be a life worth living. 

– Nikki