A long road

Patience is not a virtue I come by naturally. This is often proven when you get me in a car as long road trips can often push me over the edge. I just want to get where I’m heading and not have any obstacles in my way. And when you stick me in the middle of a traffic jam, oh goodness look out, because the beast inside might come roaring out.

The ironic thing is that I’ve felt like my life has been one major traffic jam the last year or so. I’m on the road, heading toward something, and yet stuck moving at a snail’s pace, if even that. The mile markers seem to taunt me as they mark my slow progress of movement. And yet on Friday, it seems the traffic cleared and I got a glimpse of the open road ahead as my long sought destination finally came into sight.

It’s been about a year or so since I’ve known that my time at my current job was coming to an end. There have been so many amazing things about working at my school and so much growth in me as a person. As I look back, I can’t imagine having any other role or place to work for the last five plus years. And yet, I could feel my heart moving on, my sights being set elsewhere, and the closing of this door. It wasn’t an easy thing to realize because with it came the pain of leaving something that had become not only comfortable and stable, but a home with a family that I had grown to love and cherish.

To be honest, this last year has been hard and the road has been rough. I’ve found myself in a place of transition that has stretched me and strained me. I’ve also found a hope deep inside my heart that I was afraid to admit existed or to believe could be fulfilled. And yet on Friday I got to experience the surpassing goodness of my God as He provided an answer to my heart’s yearning.

On Friday I was offered the position of the Children’s Ministry Director for a church in Ft. Worth, Texas. There is no other way to describe this entire experience other than to say it is “TRIPPY”. From running into an old friend at a wedding, to mentioning I was looking at ministry positions, to having a whirlwind few weeks of interviews and meetings, to feeling completely unworthy and unable, to being assured by friends that God is bigger than my abilities or my inabilities, I have seen the leading and provision of an Amazing God who is always at work on the behalf of His children.

It seems only fitting with all of this happening in my life that I am reading through Hebrews and came to chapter 11 these last few nights. Coined the “Hall of Faith” by some, it lists those who have gone before us “by faith”. I read through the lives of normal men and women just like me, simple and faulted people, who, for no other reason than faith in an all-powerful and good God, were blessed beyond measure and took their place in the story of God’s master plan for mankind. Each person exhibited the definition of faith given in verse 1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hopes for, the conviction of things not seen.”

And as the destination of my long road trip of late becomes clear, I realize that this road was marked by faith: faith that God does have a plan for my life, faith that the qualities and gifts He so graciously gave to me are for His glory, faith that He will lead me and bring me to the places He has ordained, faith that He will continue to teach me along this road, faith that even in the midst of frustration and hopelessness He is there always beside me guiding my way, and faith that even when I can’t see and when I don’t understand, He is working on my behalf because of His great love for me.

So one journey on one road is ending and another is about to begin. I know that this road can only be lived “by faith” and yet I trust that He will continue to walk this one alongside me just as He always has.

Oh and by the way, I am so amazingly excited that upon getting the phone call that I was offerend the job, I literally started jumping up and down and was equally screaming and speechless at the same time.

To steal a tagline from a good friend:

God is good.