New Beginnings

"For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper and not harm you, plans to give you a future and hope." - Jeremiah 29:11

 

Tomorrow is a momentous day.  Tomorrow life changes.  As I stand at the tail end of a beautiful 9 year chapter of my life, I reflect on sweet friends I have made, amazing experiences I’ve been a part of, and memories upon memories to last a lifetime.  Corrie Ten Boom said, “Every experience God gives us is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.”  I most definitely believe that.  God has blessed me immensely these past 9 years and tomorrow He blesses me with a new beginning as He picks up His pen and begins to write this new chapter in the story of my life.

New beginnings can be very exciting as they mean new and exciting experiences and opportunities.  New beginnings can also be a little scary, though, as you face a future where you are unsure of how things will happen.  No matter what your feelings about new beginnings may be, there is one constant – God the Father.  He stands with you to face your new beginning and there’s only one thing He asks for in return…trust. 

Let me stop here and say, when Proverbs said to “trust in the Lord with all your heart,” it meant ALL.  Every single bit.  If you don’t give God every minuscule of trust you have, you are going to be miserable about your new beginning (believe me, I speak from personal experience).  However when you give control of your whole life and future to God and trust Him with all of it – He will take your fears and cover them (and in Waffle House terms…smother them) with an overwhelming peace.  Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”  Peace in the midst of uncertainty is a strange feeling but it’s then that you know you’re right where God wants you to be and that your new beginning is in the best possible hands.  Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper and not harm you, plans to give you a future and hope.”  What a sweet promise we can take with us into a new beginning as we are promised by our Father that His plans are for our good. 

I’m in awe (and will probably forever be in awe) at how God has orchestrated this new opportunity for me in Nashville.  To take the dream of my heart – to work for the Southern Baptist Convention – and turn it into reality without me even pursuing it is literally unbelievable.  In an excerpt from this blog circa June 16, 2011, I said: “I love the Southern Baptist Convention...I love being a Southern Baptist, I love what the SBC stands for, & I love being able to work for the people who are the face of Southern Baptists.  If I could be a life-long page or a life-long convention worker, I would do it in a heart-beat.  Who knows, maybe I can?!?”  Providential, huh?

God says in Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth…”  I’ve heard and read that verse over and over, but tomorrow I live it.  It’s crazy, it’s scary, and it’s a huge big step…but I’m at peace and ready to trust God with this new beginning and step out in faith to see where He takes me.

Francesca Battestelli’s “Write Your Story” says what my heart sings right at this moment, “I’m an empty page, I’m an open book, write Your story on my heart, go on and make your mark.  Author of my hope, Maker of the stars let me be Your work of art, won’t You write Your story on my heart.”  

His pen is ready and now it's time to start this new chapter...