A Year in Faith
“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
I bought this wooden block a year and a half ago. It was a time where I found myself with lunch breaks to meet up with friends or to think alone at the coffee shop over my favorite hummus plate. I had accepted a job about five months before as a nursing director at a local agency providing community based support and nursing services to people in their homes. It was exciting and challenging and truly a position I had always said I didn’t want. But, I loved it! Home by 5:30pm from my job right down the street, able to have dinner and rest with my family, setting goals as a family and seeing them happen, having the chance to advocate for peoples’ best health and choices every single day… this was a dream come true. It was a dream I didn’t know I wanted.
So, when I saw this little wooden block I knew it was necessary. I bought it and put it right in my kitchen, alternating between stove top and window sill, to remind me not to let this new job that I loved replace my first calling to my husband then children ever again. It wouldn’t take me much retrospection to look at the past two years of my life and see that God had been leading me to let go of my position at Vanderbilt and trust He would provide something closer to home and better for my family.
I LOVED my Vandy Children’s life! With some of the best coworkers around, each striving for excellence and providing the type of patient and family centered care I thought was possible only in research journals, why would I ever leave! I hated that our jobs were so necessary but I loved what we did and praised God for the calm He gave in moments that felt like storms. The word “crash” is so accurate to me as I remember nights of feeling like we had done everything and then, as if the ceiling is falling and while people are sobbing, everything changes with people coming in right in time to take their stations and save a child’s life. Hate the necessity of that place. Love the purpose and the drive in those professionals, watching the Lord work miracles through extraordinary people. It was my professional comfort zone.
As good as my Vandy life was, I knew I was scared to set aside the comfort and security there for something that might not even work out. The Lord made the path straight and brought me closer to home. This time, I would have more boundaries. This time, I would listen when I felt that nudge from God to focus in at home or church. This time, I would not delay in obeying Him (which is just a fancy way of saying that I originally disobeyed Him… something I have repented for and feel freedom now to share).
Little did I know that the awareness of His Will over my will, the acute sensitivity I had to His guidance (constantly reinforced by the Word and affirmed in wise counsel) would take us so far from Dickson, TN so soon. I thought of this little block in my kitchen as I packed my bags to head to Ireland on a mission trip with my husband last year. I thought of this little block when I half-joking looked at Billy on the plane and said, “Five Years, Buddy” to remind him of our Dave Ramsey goals. I thought of this little block during our evangelism outreach when I saw my husband ministering to teenage boys and knew God needed us here now.
Ireland was the long term dream God had given us in the foundation of our relationship and since I was a child. Now, a year later, we prepare for our home church to send a new team for the same outreach we came on last year. Now, we prepare for their arrival as long term members of this Irish ministry newly sending roots into the greenest land we have known. Now, I stare at this little block in my new kitchen window and believe that obedience is better than any other option.
I still find myself crying some days as I remember the people, the places, the home we had made but the tears change instantly from sorrow to joy because it is a blessing to have such a community, built on God’s Truth, to send us into this season! We left a season and team in which people operated in truth, sought peace in even the hard ways, and truly shared the same desire to see lost people meet and know Jesus. We were a spiritually well oiled machine and could trust the work of God in one another, through the tough and the easy lessons. So. Many. Lessons. What took years to build there will happen again in God’s time and in new ways without taking away from what God did back home.
It is my earnest prayer to continue to know God better, to seek the heart of Christ and the peace the Holy Spirit instills then to allow that to guide every decision. I pray that we may know His Word deeply and test and discern all leading against His scripture (1 Thes 5:21). I pray that we be a family that follows the Lord, making ourselves to rest in His present peace when our humanity clings in fear to comfort and security (John 14:27).
And now, I will stare at this little block as I was the dishes and praise God that all of His promises are “Yes” and “Amen” in Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:20). May we have another year, alongside all of our fellowship and communities at home and abroad, of trusting the Lord’s ways over our own and believing that He is higher. He is the God of providence. He is working. All the glory is His.
In the Love of Christ from Ireland,
Hannah
I bought this wooden block a year and a half ago. It was a time where I found myself with lunch breaks to meet up with friends or to think alone at the coffee shop over my favorite hummus plate. I had accepted a job about five months before as a nursing director at a local agency providing community based support and nursing services to people in their homes. It was exciting and challenging and truly a position I had always said I didn’t want. But, I loved it! Home by 5:30pm from my job right down the street, able to have dinner and rest with my family, setting goals as a family and seeing them happen, having the chance to advocate for peoples’ best health and choices every single day… this was a dream come true. It was a dream I didn’t know I wanted.
So, when I saw this little wooden block I knew it was necessary. I bought it and put it right in my kitchen, alternating between stove top and window sill, to remind me not to let this new job that I loved replace my first calling to my husband then children ever again. It wouldn’t take me much retrospection to look at the past two years of my life and see that God had been leading me to let go of my position at Vanderbilt and trust He would provide something closer to home and better for my family.
I LOVED my Vandy Children’s life! With some of the best coworkers around, each striving for excellence and providing the type of patient and family centered care I thought was possible only in research journals, why would I ever leave! I hated that our jobs were so necessary but I loved what we did and praised God for the calm He gave in moments that felt like storms. The word “crash” is so accurate to me as I remember nights of feeling like we had done everything and then, as if the ceiling is falling and while people are sobbing, everything changes with people coming in right in time to take their stations and save a child’s life. Hate the necessity of that place. Love the purpose and the drive in those professionals, watching the Lord work miracles through extraordinary people. It was my professional comfort zone.
As good as my Vandy life was, I knew I was scared to set aside the comfort and security there for something that might not even work out. The Lord made the path straight and brought me closer to home. This time, I would have more boundaries. This time, I would listen when I felt that nudge from God to focus in at home or church. This time, I would not delay in obeying Him (which is just a fancy way of saying that I originally disobeyed Him… something I have repented for and feel freedom now to share).
Little did I know that the awareness of His Will over my will, the acute sensitivity I had to His guidance (constantly reinforced by the Word and affirmed in wise counsel) would take us so far from Dickson, TN so soon. I thought of this little block in my kitchen as I packed my bags to head to Ireland on a mission trip with my husband last year. I thought of this little block when I half-joking looked at Billy on the plane and said, “Five Years, Buddy” to remind him of our Dave Ramsey goals. I thought of this little block during our evangelism outreach when I saw my husband ministering to teenage boys and knew God needed us here now.
Ireland was the long term dream God had given us in the foundation of our relationship and since I was a child. Now, a year later, we prepare for our home church to send a new team for the same outreach we came on last year. Now, we prepare for their arrival as long term members of this Irish ministry newly sending roots into the greenest land we have known. Now, I stare at this little block in my new kitchen window and believe that obedience is better than any other option.
I still find myself crying some days as I remember the people, the places, the home we had made but the tears change instantly from sorrow to joy because it is a blessing to have such a community, built on God’s Truth, to send us into this season! We left a season and team in which people operated in truth, sought peace in even the hard ways, and truly shared the same desire to see lost people meet and know Jesus. We were a spiritually well oiled machine and could trust the work of God in one another, through the tough and the easy lessons. So. Many. Lessons. What took years to build there will happen again in God’s time and in new ways without taking away from what God did back home.
It is my earnest prayer to continue to know God better, to seek the heart of Christ and the peace the Holy Spirit instills then to allow that to guide every decision. I pray that we may know His Word deeply and test and discern all leading against His scripture (1 Thes 5:21). I pray that we be a family that follows the Lord, making ourselves to rest in His present peace when our humanity clings in fear to comfort and security (John 14:27).
And now, I will stare at this little block as I was the dishes and praise God that all of His promises are “Yes” and “Amen” in Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:20). May we have another year, alongside all of our fellowship and communities at home and abroad, of trusting the Lord’s ways over our own and believing that He is higher. He is the God of providence. He is working. All the glory is His.
In the Love of Christ from Ireland,
Hannah
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