“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” -Romans 12:2 NLT
Since we have officially made the decision to place life as we have known it on pause and venture out into the unknown of a year-long sabbatical, there have been many of things to think about and put into place to make this truly a year of worship, rest and reset.
But before we get into that, let’s take a step back in time to what transpired into making this decision for our family.
At a church event many months ago, we were given prophetic words that we were going to be presented with a difficult decision. They prayed that we would have the strength to follow God’s guidance for our family. At the time, we really couldn’t think of what type of decision that could be but it definitely gave us a sense of awareness that we did not have before. Many times we were face with decisions, but they never felt like it was ‘the difficult decision’ mentioned.
Months went by, life was normal as we knew it. Busy but good. (Isn’t that the common phrase these days?) I started to feel a great deal of tugging on my heart that this way of life was not ‘it’. That this wasn’t the life that God had in store for us going forward. That there was more and we were being called deeper in our faith. But I didn’t really know what that meant or what it would look like.
However, more and more each day, I felt like a slingshot that was being stretched, in preparation for the release, or worse, the breaking.
More and more things kept piling up. They were all good things in sight of the world. Job promotion, asked to coach basketball at our school, volunteer opportunities at church. But in hindsight, I feel like those things were all added to our plate in order for the “tipping point” to happen.
A couple months into these new opportunities, I had a very instrumental session with a cognitive behavioral therapist that opened my eyes to one of the main things that was holding me back specifically in making the decision. A big hold up for me was that our kids would then be a year behind if we pulled them out of sports and did school differently. This therapist’s words stuck a cord. She said, in a sense, if you think you can do more with that year than God can, you aren’t giving him the control of your life that he deserves. He can do far more with one year that you ever could under your own control.
We talked about it in depth as a couple about where we were as a family currently, where we would end up if we stayed on this trajectory and if that is what we really wanted for our future, all with the kingdom in mind.
It was then that we made our decision official. We were going to pause ‘normal life’ for a season of rest and worship.
Then we picked the date.
Stay tuned for more as we Abide & Wander.
Leave a comment