One Woman's Unemployment is Another Woman's New Job

I totally butchered that phrase but you get what I'm saying. So it's official: we've hired a fantastic person to replace me as Area Director. The whole process was kind of extraordinary and a story worth sharing. On a Thursday morning in March I met with my committee chair to tell him I was going to leave YL staff. That afternoon I called my boss to tell him. The next morning I told all my staff friends at our Friday morning prayer meeting. On Monday I told my committee. Wednesday I told my leaders and kids. I had just completed telling everyone about my leaving when I received a call from a friend and former YL volunteer leader. She left me a voicemail saying she had just returned from a spring break road trip and was feeling both called away from teaching and called into full time ministry. After talking to my boss, I called her back. She had no idea I was leaving and after realizing the strange coincidence of me feeling called away and her feeling called into ministry, God's plan seemed pretty clear. A month and series of interviews later, she was solidified as my replacement.

Back in January when God started stirring in me, he was also stirring in Tracee. As I wrestled with the idea of leaving my job and full time ministry, Tracee was wrestling with leaving her job and heading into full time ministry. As I started dreaming about life outside ministry, Tracee started dreaming about life outside teaching. Both of us would say we are now pursuing our dreams; it's just funny that what I'm leaving behind to pursue mine is what she's heading into to pursue hers. All of us are living out the stories God has written for us. We're all on different paths, some run in opposite directions, some run parallel to one another, and sometimes they intersect. I'm so grateful that Tracee and I's paths crossed one another at such special times for both of us. Aside from being thankful that she is the very worthy candidate that will lead our area, I'm thankful that I got to witness someone else make a dramatic life transition at the same time as me. Though we're sort of swapping roles, through our shared transitions we are somehow in this together.

I was listening to Itunes on my computer while working today and Martin Sexton's In the Journey began playing. I bought the album at the end of college and listened to it a lot while driving back and forth between Columbia and Kansas City. I-70 is one of my favorite stretches of earth because of the countless drives I've made where I've just sat alone with my thoughts and sometimes some music. This topic will end up becoming a post of its own, but let's just say I've shed a lot of tears during these two hour commutes. There's a tenderness and vulnerability inside me that I'm able to tap into while driving alone. The Martin Sexton album accompanied me on many of these tearful trips, so when I heard his voice begin the opening lyrics of In the Journey today, I was taken right back to I-70 again. Memories of graduating college, beginning life as a pseudo adult, and the uncertainty of all that lie ahead flooded my mind...and my eyes. I started tearing up right there at my desk.

It's fun to be in this place of uncertainty again, stretched enough that the lyrics of this song mean something again.

"It's in the journey that we see there's no destination."

"I don't know where I'm going, I don't know just where I've been."
"We gotta dig down inside and hold on. Hold on for the ride."