The Road Unknown

As we get ready to transition to West Ridge and prepare for the next stage of our lives, I've spent a lot of time looking at our time in Nashville and reflecting. I remember vividly the nervousness and anxiousness I felt when moving to Nashville 11 years ago. I had a lot of the same feelings I have now about Atlanta.

I knew two things for certain when I moved to Nashville. 1.) I knew God wanted me there. 2.) I knew that I was not going to be a youth pastor at a church.

I filled in the rest of the blanks with my own ideas and desires. I thought I was going to be a rock star. I thought I'd make music that would reach and impact people, especially teenagers. I thought I would spend years traveling, singing, making music, etc.

11 years later, my time in Nashville looked NOTHING like I thought it would. It's true God wanted me here, but not for the reasons I thought. I spent a little time making music and traveling, but it was only to setup what God ultimately wanted me there to do. And that's doing what I thought I wouldn't do.

And that's what I think is important in all this. God calls you to obedience, not understanding. God will ask you to put your "Yes" on the table and walk in obedience down a certain road, but rarely will He tell you what the road will actually look like. He's not going to show you up front what will happen. You won't be able to calculate the risk and weigh your options. You either follow Him or you don't. It's going to require faith and trust in Him as you travel down a road unknown. And you're probably better off that way. If I knew what would take place in Nashville, I probably never would've done it.

Now, God will often give us a specific vision. He reveals to us what He wants to accomplish through us. But even then it requires an incredible amount of faith because we don't know what the details look like. We just see the end result. And often that vision can be extreme, difficult, and seemingly impossible.

So if you're stalling because you want more details about what God wants you to do, stop it. You're wasting precious time asking for something that God's not going to give you. God wants your obedience, not your understanding.

As we get ready to go to Atlanta, I'm going to refrain from filling in the blanks. I'm going to let God do that, knowing His ways are better than ours. That will free me up to enjoy the road unknown.