Do you ever feel like God is trying to tell you something?
That is how I have felt since we have moved to Roxboro. Between discussions Lee and I have had, Sunday School lessons, Revival preaching, reading Radical, and my personal Bible study- I keep hearing the same things. Maybe one day, I’ll take the time to sit and type those thoughts out in a blog. Today is not that day.
Moving away from home has not been easy, but I have learned so much that I wouldn’t have learned if I had stayed in my “comfort zone.”
Currently, I am participating in a Bible study at church called Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted. When the author of this study is speaking on the video, I feel like she’s talking to me.
Let’s admit, we all have plans for our life. Some people have very detailed, specific plans. Others just have an idea in their head of how they’d like their life to go. My plans included marrying the man of my dreams, building my dream home on my parents’ land, being an elementary school teacher at Headland Elementary, having children who could stay with my mom while I went to work, then my children would go to Headland like I did, etc. Of course, God had different plans for my life. In January 2007, Lee and I began dating. Did I see that coming? NO! From the beginning, I had this feeling that he was “the one.” Two years and eight months later, we’re engaged. Then in July 2010, we were married.
Due to this marriage, my life headed in a different direction. This occurred because Lee was called into the ministry. He also felt called to further his education in seminary-Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to be exact. So, here I was going to be-fresh out of college-moving 10 hours away from home! God wasn’t through working this out, though. Lee put his resume out to churches in the Wake Forest area. When we went to visit the seminary in April, Lee had two informal interviews with churches in the area. After prayer and consideration, we felt called to continue on with a church in Roxboro. In May, we flew up for a formal interview. The church called Lee to be their youth minister. He accepted. Then, our plans shifted. Roxboro is about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Wake Forest. We felt like it would be most effective for us to live in the community where we went to church and served. We prayed about this decision too and it was tough-mostly because we were waiting to see where I could get a job. Soon, it came down to time to make a decision. I still didn’t have a job. So, we had to go on faith and we chose to live in Roxboro. God worked it out for us to be able to rent a cute house in a wonderful location from some very nice people. He also worked it out for me to have a job (for more on that see my Sarah blog).
The point of all that was to show that my life is not going according to my plans. Now, understand that I’m not being negative about where we are living-I’m simply pointing out that my life is going in a different direction then I would have ever imagined.
“’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways’ declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8. God’s plans and our plans are usually totally different. This Bible study on Jonah is going to show us how to embrace these interruptions in our lives and view them as God’s intervention. The author of this study points out that all major characters in the Bible had their lives interrupted. When your life is interrupted, it is often God working things out for you to have an impact for Him. The way things have worked out so perfectly for our move to Roxboro really makes me think that this is exactly where God wants us right now. I have no idea why He put us in this specific place at this time. I also don’t always like it (again no offense-you imagine what it would be like to be 10 hours away from family, friends, and everything you’ve ever known). I just know that I want to be in His will.
There’s a quote from the Bible study book that I liked (it’s underlined and starred in my book). It says “It is easy to say that God and His plans are our most essential endeavors. It is entirely another thing to live like this is so.” I hope that through this Bible study and the other things that God is teaching me, I will live like His plans are most important to me. It is so easy to “play church,” but it is time for us to stop playing church and start following Christ. I’ll stop there, though, because that is a completely different thought and it could be a blog in itself.
I’ll end with this-You can’t escape life’s interruptions, but you can change your perspective on them. If you think of your interruption as God’s intervention, you could make a huge impact on the people you come in contact with and do something that will outlive you. As mentioned before, my life is not going according to MY plan, so I’m excited to see God continue to work in my life. I will keep you updated as I learn more.
Living a Life Interrupted,
Megan
