Looking Back

Earlier this month Shawn celebrated his 3rd anniversary with Time to Revive.  I know that in the grand scheme of things 3 years is hardly a drop in the bucket, but these past 3 years have held a lot of significance for us.

If you have been a long time reader of South of Home then you have watched our story unfold week after week over the past 3+ years.  I started writing this blog when we were first getting ready to make the most drastic move of our personal and professional lives to date.  I left the classroom in order to stay home full time with Nicole and Shawn left his corporate banking job in order to do vocational ministry full time.  Shawn's career change involved leaving our cozy and familiar Midwestern home and resettling our lives in Texas. 

Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."   It was hard for me to get on board with our cross-country move and Shawn's career change because I was having a difficult time seeing this job as something that God had prepared in advance for me and Shawn to do.  I thought that it might be for him but it certainly seemed like it wasn't for me and I didn't know how to reconcile that.

All of the sudden our marriage felt hard because Shawn and I didn't know how to talk to each other about the things that were being stirred deep within us.  On the surface it was just a move and a new job but underneath we were sorting through hopes, dreams, expectations and values.  We wanted to be people of faith but we didn't know how to unite together under that banner amidst the undercurrent of change. 

When I think back on the stress and strain of those early conversations, I honestly can't remember very many details.  I know my feelings were big and my questions were bigger and somewhere along the line my confidence in God's unchanging character helped me to come alongside my husband and support the move.   "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)

The process of joining staff with Time to Revive was (and sometimes still is) painful but I think the beautiful thing about pain is that it often deepens our faith in ways that we can't even fathom.  That has certainly been true for me these past couple of years.  It was Shawn's faith that brought us here and God has used his faith to bless both of us.   I now know things about God and His character not just because I've read about them in the Bible, but because I have experienced His might, majesty and lovingkindness firsthand.  It hasn't been easy but it has absolutely been worth it. 

With love,
Erica