I wonder sometimes if people think I’m playing around. My lifestyle doesn’t help anyone
leaning into this belief. Already,
I’ve been to eight countries on three continents. I’ve led two training events where we talk about team
builders (no one gets a Master’s Degree to lead “games with a purpose”) and eating
crazy foods. My parents even asked
me after I’d worked with the World Race for a couple years if I thought I’d be
staying with AIM for a while.
I won’t lie, my life is fun 🙂 I don’t argue with that reputation at
all LOL.
I get to travel the world, I get to do what I love with
people I love, I wake up almost every day looking forward to the day’s
challenges and opportunities. I
work for a leader who empowers me and gives me opportunities to do what I do
best. I work on a leadership team
who is EXCELLENT at what they do and the roles they play. Our ministry is growing exponentially
and we are seeing miracles happen before our very eyes.
But I’m sobered.
Maybe this comes from being a firstborn, but I live with a
huge sense of responsibility. I
look at all that God’s entrusted to me and can’t even begin to dream of ways to
steward it well. I couldn’t
imagine just walking away from it all.
God’s blessed me with that, actually. I’ve only had about 5 jobs in my entire life. With only one exception, I’ve stayed
with all of my employers a minimum of two years. So it’s not abnormal for me to have now been at AIM for just
over two years.
Yet, this is different. I don’t feel like I’m working just another stepping
stone. This is it! When I was on the World Race, Jerry
Goode, the director of the World Race at the time asked me what I wanted to do
with my life and I looked at him without hesitation and said: “I’d love to do
Training and Discipleship with a Non-Profit Missions sending organization.” Cool huh?
The more I counsel the people in my life and ministry, I
realize though that being where you want to be and where God wants you to be is
not about finding that one thing that makes you happy. If that’s what your looking for, you’ll
live discontent your entire life (if you’ve read some of my past blogs, it’s
the “It Myth”).
The place you need to be is the place where you can handle
the mess. Just last night my
roommate Jared and I were talking about this. People are messy.
They’re unpredictable, they’re emotional, they have a will, an opinion
and a choice. As long as that’s
the case, ministry will always be messy.
I don’t find life here because it makes me happy, but because
I see that I can handle the messes here.
And watching God clean things up actually brings me life. I haven’t always felt this way, but
here, it clicks. So I’m here to
stay.
