Saying Yes Part 2

So there is another part to this story. My move to Atlanta. I had been working in Kansas City for a couple of years and just was hating it. I wasn't being fed spiritually, I was single...I needed a change. I had a friend who lived in Chicago. Her dad is the pastor of a large church up there and she asked me to come to Chicago and check things out, interview, audition etc to perhaps be a part of their team. I spent 5 days in interviews and auditions and was totally out of my element. I would have thought it would be an easy fit, but it just wasn't. I came home, at a loss for where the Lord might bring me. My brother and his family were living in Atlanta at the time and attending a church called North Point Community Church. Darren asked me to come check it out for longer than a weekend and see what I thought. I came and didn't expect the Lord to speak to my heart the way he did.
First I attended Sunday morning w/ him and his family. Before I had just thought it was way too big...I mean how can anyone connect there. But then I sat in and listened to what the Lord said through Andy Stanley that morning...it was about Peter and the Lord calling him to come walk out on the water to Him. I had heard this story a million times...yet this time it hit a different chord with me. The deal was Peter already knew how to walk. He needed to leave the walking on water to the Lord. Just do what he knew how to, which was swinging his legs over the boat, standing up, and walking...let the Lord do the miraculous stuff. Oh my goodness...I knew how to swing my legs over, I knew how to stand up, and I knew how to walk...I needed to leave the miracle to Him.
Then two days later I attended 7:22 (a ministry at the time for young adults led by Louie Giglio)...I was thinking a few hundred people maybe...when I walked in what I saw was thousands of like minded young adults worshiping! I was blown away. Was it really possible to have this kind of community? I had nothing like this in KC. I knew I was supposed to move to Atlanta.
When I arrived home in Kansas, I still remember sitting out on my parents patio, eating dinner and sharing about the trip to Atlanta. I shared what I felt like the Lord was asking of me, and then I asked for my dad's blessing. This may sound weird, but I felt that since I was still single I was under my dad's authority and wanted to have his blessing to move half way across the country. With tears in his eyes, he said of course we give you our blessing. It's so far away, but we trust that you have heard from the Lord. So, in just 3 short months I would move to Atlanta. This was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I "told the Lord" (ha!) that I would give Him 2 years...and then I was going home - to Kansas. Isn't it funny how we actually give the Lord a timeline! Ha! So much would happen in those next two years...I would struggle w/ depression, work several jobs I hated, have doors open at North Point for me to work there (this story later), and I would meet my husband to be right at the 2 year mark. I love the Lord's sense of humor.
Even today I think there are things that I give the Lord a time line on. Or things that I try to control the "miracle"...I try to do it all. Even as I type this I realize that control is something He has been trying to get me to let go of all along. Yet, there is a balance...someone has to be in charge here at the house. Someone has to take control...yet...Satan is a crafty liar. He likes to twist or pervert beautiful things into ugly things and make us think they are still beautiful. For instance, I score very high on aptitude tests in the persuasiveness category (I just reread that and it sounded like I was saying I have a high IQ ha). Being persuasive isn't necessarily a bad thing...but when Satan twists that it is manipulation. I don't ever want to allow the way the Lord made me to be twisted.
The take away for me today is that my children will learn from me how to relinquish control back to the Father. I need them to hear me asking the Lord for help, wisdom, discernment, to need the Lord...They will learn from us how to swing their legs over the side of the boat, stand up, and walk. So in the uncertainty of each day...I must just do what I know how to do, and trust the Lord that He will show up and actually make my feet firm on the water.