Six Months at a Time

For all 3 of you who asked when (or if) I’d write again, I thank you for your loyal appetite and patience. I’ve been super busy doing only one thing for six months, and it has nothing to do with writing (although I could have written an entire book over this period) or work or anything all that measurable. But more on that in a moment.

Upon further reflection, I’m realizing that the most material milestone moments in my life over the last few years have come in six month increments. Six months of symptoms, six months of chemo, six months of recovery (from both cancer and career transition), and now six months of active and intentional planning for our next chapter.

Interestingly the same can be said for our church life as it relates to our leadership transition 3 years ago. It started with six months of waiting, which was uncomfortable but necessary “treatment” to begin the healing process before we could consider moving forward or rebuilding. Then came six months of more active discussion about the best path forward, but even this could be described as part of our recovery. Finally, right when we thought we would take one course of action, God presented an entirely different path forward as we then prepared and planned to mobilize and launch something new over the following six months.

In other words, reflect, recover, rebuild. Treatment, healing, restoration. And each phase took a solid six months where the process or journey was even more important than the destination. Each transition has been profound, and we have grown every step of the way.

Without a doubt, prayer has been the most critical common denominator for each season above. In fact, I’m now convinced that’s the only thing that matters in any season – even if it’s a good one. God has a way of getting our attention when crisis crescendos, which often leads us to the end of ourselves and a more active pursuit of Him. And we have learned firsthand that the promise is absolutely true: if we seek Him, we will find Him, when we seek Him with all of our heart.

So I now think nothing worthwhile can be found by ourselves nor can it be found quickly. If we go too fast, we might miss what God has next because we’re too busy or life is a blur. And if we go solo, we’ll never find the significant step that may pivot us into something so much greater than we can imagine or script on our own.

Which brings me back to our last six months where God has clearly been calling us to pick up and go. When we first started praying about moving, we actually fought back with resistance since we have such a strong foundation of family and friends in Cleveland. But once we changed posture and opened our hands, which was what God consistently asked us to do in the previous six month intervals, we knew he was drawing us to a new place to begin a new experience.

And that page turns in 6 weeks as we move south to Atlanta. Obviously it isn’t easy to wrap up 20 years of relationships without emotion, but we also look forward with anticipation for the adventure ahead. So much has yet to be written that is still unseen, which could be overwhelming if we abandon what we’ve learned over the last few years.

But God has been preparing us, and we know His plan is perfect. Plus He already knows the plan designed for our good, plans that give us hope and a future. And that is where we place our trust, six months at a time until our book is completed.