Jobless Homeless Moneyless Faithful

This week has kind of bummed me out a little bit. We have some big changes happening very soon that I haven't been very conversational about so I'll fill you in...

WE'RE MOVING!

We have lived fairly happily in Austin, TX for the past year. Aaron got a great job in retail management. Despite being bored out of my mind, I had a great paying job with lovely coworkers. We had a fabulous (and superbly decorated if I do say so myself) apartment. We fell in love with a wonderful church and served in their Children's Ministry since August teaching pre-kinder. We befriended an amazing group of young-married believers and even hosted them in our home every week.  God has really blessed us. 

When I lost my job, we had laid out various worst-case-scenario responses if A should happen or if B took place. And just our luck, they all took place at once. 

I wasn't able to find viable employment. Our apartment complex pretty much financially evicted us by raising our rent by 22%. Then Aaron, too, lost his job. 

Thankfully, God's timing was gracious. We are at the end of our lease term anyway. By being jointly unemployed, we are both free to uproot without any friction. We had just enough saved up to finish out our lease, bills, and cover moving expenses. 

So in two days we will be en route to our new home in East Texas. Aaron has an awesome brother and sister-in-law who has offered their home to us.  We are kind of looking forward to the change.

1. They have a huge house which will allow us to have our "own space." 

2. Aaron can hang out with and share in "manly activities" with his brother. 

3. We will get to spend a lot of time with our three nieces.

(Of this idea, I'm slightly enamored.)

4. Our sister-in-law is a recruiter with a bazillion connections in the area.

It shouldn't take us too long to find jobs.

5. Once we pick back up on the nine to five routine, we will be able to save up and get back on our feet better than we were before (hopefully). 

There are some things that we are mildly anxious about, however. 

1. Their house is in a remote location and we fear there will be difficulties finding that "community" feeling again. 

2. We will have to church shop for a while to see where God calls us. This brings out a wealth of logistical questions: How far will we have to drive? Will the friends we make live close by? Will we become full members? Will we serve in a ministry? How long will we be there?

3. We are going to be living off of someone else's good graces so I feel like every financial decision we make could be questioned. This is not to say that our family is judgmental in any way, only that I would probably have some thoughts of my own if people living with me were spending frivolously. 

4. We, a newly married couple, will be living with a family of five. 

I don't even know what to be anxious about in this area!

I think, most unfortunately, we will miss our church and our small group here in Austin. We prayed for so long that God would give us fellowship and call us into service. Now that we are being asked to give  back to Him that which we've been blessed with, I am not as optimistic about finding it quickly in a new city. 

We just finished a study on the book of Ruth utilizing a sermon series called Redeeming Ruth by Mark Driscoll.

This study felt so appropriate for our situation right now. It's so comforting to know that God is sovereign and good. His plan is perfect and He can use our bad decisions to bring glory to His name. Aaron and I are trying really hard to trust that this is God doing good things with our life that we simply cannot see. It's so comforting to know that my life means so little and ALL the glory goes to God and to advancing the Kingdom of Christ Jesus. It is a huge relief to trust that when Jesus hung on the cross and said "It is finished" that He did all the work for my life. There is nothing that I could do that would inhibit God from establishing His Kingdom on Earth.

I love being let off the hook a little bit and having more confidence in my own decision making, knowing He'll use my choices any way I make them. I pray that I can be like Ruth and submit to His will for my life. Right now, His desire is for us to be jobless, homeless, moneyless, faithful children.

That doesn't sound so hard now does it?