Reinventing Myself: Thriving Instead of Just Barely Surviving

WPPI Retreat Painting

A few weeks ago, I decided to attach some legs to my faith and take a huge leap towards my dreams!  I left a well paid, "secure", and comfy job in order to live out the purpose that God has placed in my heart.  I've taken early retirement from the status quo to pursue my passion of journeying with others as they discover their God purpose.  So you may be thinking, "This girl is crazy leaving a good paying job in today's economy."  But what I began to realize over the last few years is that that place where I use to be comfortable and fit in was starting to become uncomfortable and like a round peg trying to fit into a square hole. :) Yeah, I know I got that metaphor backwards but I'm round not square. I realized I had put myself in a box.  My creativity had been lost and I didn't know where I had left it. I just recently finished reading "Drop Like Stars" by Rob Bell.  He says, 


"And then there are those who think and feel and live and create from a different place.  They've had their boxes smashed and their insulators dismantled until they had no other option but to imagine a totally new tomorrow." 


All of the little life boxes I had created for myself like having 2.5 kids and living in the house with the with the white picket fence were all crushed when our first son was born with Trisomy 18 (Edward's Syndrome).  There we were in December of 2002, a few days before Christmas, standing eyeball-to-eyeball with the unknown. Trying to figure out why God gave us this sweet, special little boy to raise.  But it was through our son's birth & death 4 years later and 3 more beautiful babies, that God gave me a Hope in Jesus Christ that would never fade. 


It is from that place where I got up the courage to "cross the Red Sea as if it were dry land" in order to leave that place of comfort and security called a job.  It is from that place where I learned to kick fear and doubt out the window and truly begin walking by faith.   You see, your faith has legs and it wants to walk and not be carried like a baby.  

It is from this place that I am leaving the familiar, expecting the impossible, accomplishing the unattainable, and pursuing passion with purpose.  Yes, there are lots of what if's... What if it doesn't work?...What if I totally fail?...So what!  


This I do know. Ephesians 3:17-20 tells us to Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.  It tells us to Reach out and experience the breadth of Christ's love, test its length, plumb the depths, and rise to the heights! 


If you want to live life to its fullest, find your God-ordained purpose, and begin thriving instead of just surviving, I invite you to journey with me over the next few days, weeks, & months as I walk out my mountain moving faith, transforming, reinventing myself.