Well, when a transition like this comes so quickly, it’s a little difficult to gather your thoughts. Not that I haven’t been thinking things these past few weeks, but I haven’t been able to really meditate on everything very well. But I’m attempting to right now.
Let’s start with what I’ll be leaving behind….Abilene. This town has been difficult to leave, and I don’t mean that like you think I mean it. I love Abilene and I have never had the desire that many other have to “get out any way you can”. Actually, I have caught myself making a strong case to others for staying in Abilene as long as you can. It’s a great community, not too big, not too small, we have a great group of friends here, we definitely have a unique and visionary church that is destined for the future here. There’s a great culture here of a young, emerging generation that I feel called to minister to.
In fact, if you were to ask me anytime from my last year of college to yesterday if job and money issues weren’t issues at all, would I still stay in Abilene, my answer would be a solid “yes”. Why would I want to leave? I have an amazing opportunity serving at the most cutting edge and purposeful church in West Texas. We have a great group of friends. We have family here. We enjoy life here. It would be much easier to just stay put and live life here rather than start all over again and move to a completely new environment where we have much less of those things (as of yet). But, job and money issues are in fact issues and they have forced us to be open to God about other doors he might want to open, and He has opened a door. So who am I to turn down an answer to a two year old prayer just because it isn’t exactly as convenient as it could be? How arrogant would it be to receive an amazing opportunity for Katy and to turn it down because it doesn’t provide us with the comfort that we are used to? And how ignorant would it be for us to think that God cannot provide the things that we cherish here in another place? Can God not provide friends in Plano? Can He not provide a community of believers that share a similar vision as ours? Could it be that God could actually provide those things and more? I think I’ve underestimated the providence of God through all of this. I’m often concerned more with what God isn’t doing and what He might not do rather than what He is doing and what He could do. So I guess I need to make more of a conscious effort to think more optimistically when I begin to worry about things like who will replace me at Crosspoint, what I’ll be missing there, how I will find a good job, finding a church, and meeting friends. I think God is only beginning to surprise me here. This is only the first step down another road, just another part of the journey. There will be much more to come.