During the season of mulling over lists in our journals, trying
our best to be good students, we were totally transparent with our small
group. We have been blessed for the last
15 years to have an intimate inner circle of friends who encourage and keep us
accountable to live the lives we have committed to living. We call this group of 5 other couples our Small
Group. They pray for us, love us when we
forget the truth, think erroneous thoughts,
sav hurtful things to our spouses and yell at our kids. When we were considering applying for the regional
job, they were the first to hear about it.
They willingly joined us in prayer and patiently processed every facet
of this life-changing decision.
One friend from our small group said that when she prayed,
she kept seeing a picture of Jeff and I standing on the banks of a rushing
river. In the scene that she saw, we
were holding hands and stepping boldly, feet first, into a rushing river. She told me what she saw. With no harm done, I thanked her for sharing
and parked this odd visual in the back of my mind.
On the day of the interview with the regional board, we went
out to lunch with the Ellensburg Area Director.
We listened to him talk about his region and his ministry over Italian salads. After our meal, he suggested that we go down
to the park at the end of the road as a place where we could gather our
thoughts and put the finishing touches on our interview outfits. He said it had a nice view and a shaded
parking lot that would provide a cool resting spot on the hot August day. We slowing rolled into the park. Jumped out of the car to look over the side
of the parking lot and were greeted by a rushing and powerful river. Is this the river our friend saw in her
picture of us? I felt a little nauseous and
wanted to jump in the Yakima River that was rushing before our eyes. It was too real.
I didn’t jump. We went to the interview. On the chatty drive home, we stopped at our favorite
restaurant in Cle Elum, and kept driving, expecting a phone call lthe morning
after. Near the top of Snoqualmie pass
Jeff received a text message from the Divisional Vice President requesting a
call back. I was driving, offering Jeff
a break. We pulled over at the Department of Transportation restrooms at the
top of the mountain pass. We jumped out
of the car and Jeff called back his supervisor.
He was offered the job and was asked if he would accept the job. Silence.
Jeff looked at me, covered the phone with his hand and whispered, “what
should I say?” “It’s your thing!” I whispered
back. What a lie. But I said it because he was the one who
would be responsible for his decision. He
accepted. And there, on the mountaintop, we knew things would be forever
different.
On the way home, we called our small group and requested a
special meeting for the following night to discuss the interview. One couple was away delivering their oldest
son to college and joined us via skype.
We shared the play by play version of the previous day’s
happenings. Heather’s
questions were peculiar. “When you got
the call, were you on the top of the mountain, or near the top, maybe on the other
side?” Her curiosity was almost
troubling. “We pulled over at the
summit we took the call and said yes right
there…” I assured her.
“Hmm… not to freak you out, but when we were praying for you
before this, I saw you and Jeff on the top of a mountain deciding if you would
lead that region. It was as if you were
standing between the two areas, divided by the mountain, and were deciding
right then and there where you would go.”
She didn’t want to tell us what she so vividly envisioned in her
head. I’m sure she thought I would think
she was weird. But she had to share the
picture she saw and to me it was reassuring.
The scene in her mind is exactly what happened. Jeff and I at the mountain summit, deciding
our own fate, choosing between the known life we have grown to love, and the
unknown land of obedience.
Mind was blown.
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