More change to our 2020? Why not. Let’s throw something else on this big old heap of uncertainty!
Max and I both came to walk with the Lord together, truly, after we were married. 7 years into our marriage, the Lord did a serious work within each of us and it not only transformed us separately, but it transformed our marriage and relationship with Him. God is so good. His timing is perfect and when He moves in a marriage, it’s life changing. I’d love to share our testimony with you over coffee sometime.
Church. This is perhaps the biggest change we have gone through in 2020. Completely unexpected.
We started going to church on a regular basis after we had our first daughter. It’s always been a place that we would go. We went to church on Sunday morning. We served on teams and helped with programs and events. It was a sweet time. So many good memories.
When Covid-19 hit, it changed the way that everyone across the country went to church. While there was a rush to figure out how to maintain the normalcy, we were being drawn to something different. The Holy Spirit had given us a nudge in January, but Covid became a catalyst for seeking what that nudge meant. We knew that we had to read His Word. We dug deep. We prayed. And we prayed.
My grandmother has prayed this verse over me my entire life. It says that we don’t walk this path alone in the dark. That what He says is light and it will show us the way to go.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. – Psalm 119:105
We read about the New Testament church and our spirits lit up! It was as if the Holy Spirit had given us a new lens with which to read these passages through. We read Acts and Romans, and 1st and 2nd Corinthians. We read and read and the early church unfolded out of these books and into our hearts.
We were being called out.
Out of the typical. Out of the traditional. Out of the building.
We didn’t know what to say. We only knew that we had to be obedient to what the Holy Spirit was speaking to us.
When I left our church’s staff in December, I knew that we would take a break from going to services, but I had no idea that we would end up leaving the building. We love the people there and value that season. It’s not easy to leave what you have always known as church.
This has been a journey like no other. We have had to weed out a lot of things in our lives including the fear of man. We’ve had to move forward and step out in faith. We have had to trust the Lord as we walk into this unknown path even though it is much less traveled.
We aren’t on this journey to carve out our great ideas, patterns and plans. Quite the opposite — we know our striving and plans fall far short of God’s glorious plan for our lives.
It’s so weird to know something so for sure, but not know exactly what it is. But what I can say for sure is that leaving the building doesn’t mean leaving Jesus. The Holy Spirit is drawing us back to the roots of the early church. When the church met in homes and shared meals together.
We don’t know what we’re doing, and that’s ok.
We don’t have all the answers, and that’s ok.
Some may not understand our decision, and that’s ok.
In all of this change, it has been easy to get overwhelmed. I have my moments. Boy have I had my moments. When I get overwhelmed, I go back to my favorite verse. It gives the assurance of peace and two things that we can do while we wait on God and His timing.
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,
Isaiah 26:3,4
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Trust in the Lord always,
for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.
So we will trust in Him. And we will keep our thoughts fixed on Him.
He is our eternal Rock.