This letter marks the first post in a long line of posts to come detailing my journey over the next few months into the world of trafficking. So thank you for taking the time to be part of my journey. I’m two weeks from launch and the last two months have been a proverbial blur…. Summed up in a few words… Exhausting, Trying, Amazing, and Stretching.
Initially, my journey seemed an impossible combination of responsibilities and insurmountable goals. I for whatever insane reason found myself working through municipal funding initiatives as president of the fire company, running fire calls, pursuing a graduate degree in community psychology, teaching high school fulltime, founding a non-profit, speaking publicly about trafficking and trying to raise funds to embark on this journey. It seemed to be a continuous string of days that involved early morning meetings, followed by a day of work, followed by more meetings or grad school….At the outset of this journey, I would have never taken on so much if I would have known how overwhelmed I was going to feel. However, I truly believe God wanted me to be at a place where I had to rely on his provision. I found myself feeling the tremors of breakdown which forced me to look to God and not worry about the big picture. Because if I looked at that big picture I immediately felt overwhelmed and felt like quitting.
But through this exaggerated microcosm of my life, God was teaching me something much more. As a type “A” doer, God was showing me that it was his grace that was getting me through this self concocted “To Do List”. Why self concocted? Well I think to be brutally honest, I believe personalities like my own create a big “To Do List” and keep busy in an effort to stave off feelings of insignificance. It is when we adopt a twisted worldview of life which equates significance to a list of “resume” accomplishments, that we find ourselves in quicksand-like struggles. How difficult it is to “Be Still and know [He] is God” in a world that say you matter not because of who you are but because of what you have done? God has shown me that I don’t need to sprint through life compiling a list of accomplishments because I already matter. I’ve learned to value quiet, quality time with family. I’ve learned that there is always enough time to do the things that truly matter. I’ve learned to rely on others. I’ve learned that although the change associated with the loss things/positions in life is tough sometimes its for the best. Most of all, I’ve learned that God doesn’t need a big resume from us in order to do great things with us.
As the story goes, the municipal funding worked out, I answered plenty of fire calls, I got an “A” in the grad course, teaching has been going fine, the non-profit is still a work in progress… but is progressing, a number of people have gotten activated to fight trafficking, and the fund raising has progressed far better than expected. God provided, taught and once again displayed that He is God.
Till next time…
Tim Bradley
P.S. For more details on the beginning of my journey and how to partner with me, visit me at www.mosaiclancaster.org/timbradley instead of using the Support Me tab here on my blog.
