In March Jean was let go from her job because the company had lost another company and couldn't afford to keep her. Honestly, they should have let me go. Jean did a lot more productive work for the company than I do. She gets paid by the piece, so they don't have to pay her any benefits. For some reason she was let go and I was allowed to stay. Maybe because they knew I was planning to leave by the end of summer anyway.
Jean and I made three promises. We would continue to tithe and give, we would not use the credit card to pay for anything, and we would not accept any help from our parents. Some months were very interesting, but we kept our promises and God always gave us just enough. It was especially hard during the storms when we lost power for several days and all of our perishables perished. We lost approximately $275 worth of food, and our home owners insurance would cover anything after a loss of $250. How would we replace that food, especially on one income that didn't cover the bills on paper? Friends showed up uninvited to cut trees. They also brought food. Others brought food which replaced more than we lost. Crazy.
Riding was good for me this summer. Sometimes I rode with Jean, sometimes I rode with Sam, sometimes I rode with the guys, and sometimes I rode with just God. When riding alone I would listen to music or a sermon by Andy Stanley or Erwin McManus or Francis Chan. They would help encourage me as I felt the walls close in by a house that wasn't selling in order to move to Seattle, and by a job that would come to an end for me by the end of summer if we stayed in Grand Rapids, with no other opportunities opening.
Jean and I were talking. I said that I could find Scripture that could support us staying and Scripture to support us going. One passage from Scripture that stopped me in my tracks is when Satan was tempting Jesus in the dessert and Jesus says, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Jesus quotes from Deut. 6:16 where the Israelites were being provided for, but it wasn't enough. But, one commentary says that when you are doing God's work, expect to be tested by the adversary, so "press on" basically and do what God is commanding. I told Jean that I felt immobilized. We couldn't be sure if we were going out of obedience or impatience, or staying out of obedience or disobedience.
Jean then brought out what she had just read the night before in "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day." This is what Mark [Batterson] says... Obedience is a willingness to do whatever, whenever, wherever God calls us. And that looks different for
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Jean closed the book. And together we decided that we must go to Seattle, even if we were only 80 percent sure at best if we should. Not because we were charged about what Mark wrote, but because we knew deeply what God had called us to do.
And shortly after making that decision we learned that my dad, who died three years ago, had left enough financially for me that would pay for our move, finishing our driveway, and school for Sam for a year. Crazy.
Our close friends are excited that we taking the risk, though they are sad that we won't be around to share life together. Other friends, even a few that are chasing their own lion into a pit on a snowy day, are concerned at what we are doing. That is cool. It is awesome to be truly cared about. My mom is sad because she will be much more than an hour from her only grandkids, her only son, and only daughter (in-law). Jean's parents are very sad, too, but said, "we know that is where you guys need to be."
Most everyone who loves us will worry about our choice to one degree or another. It is good to be loved. It is good to be cared for. It is also good that we are loved so much that people would be concerned.
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God is asking each person to have faith. For us, we are 80 percent sure that it means going to Seattle NOW. We go knowing we are deeply loved by God and by our friends, even by the friends that are scared to death about the journey we are taking. We have good, good friends. Jean and I will keep the same three promises in Seattle: We will continue to tithe and give, we will not use the credit card to pay for anything, and we will not accept any help from our parents (except from my Dad who is giving now when he couldn't pay child support for me when I was growing up).
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