New directions (how the shift is playing out, part 2)

Just over three months ago, this sabbatical time between homeschooling and starting my graduate program began.  In one short week, I found that I had more free time than I'd had in the previous 7 1/2 years   maybe ever?  To be honest, it scared me a little bit.  Would I come to the end of it in a better place than where I began?  Would I squander vast portions of the day on things that really didn't matter?  The temptation to start writing HUGE lists of all the things that I thought that I *should* do was very strong.

But somehow, I found myself choosing a different path, prompted in part by a book that I was reading, Learning a New Routine: Reading the Sermon on the Mount by Jon Swanson.  He wrote:

Here's the new routine:  Ask God what part of His kingdom He wants you to seek right now.  And seek it.  And ask.  And seek.  And ask.  And seek.

That became my daily prayer as I made a sort of "spine" list for my day that included only the absolute necessities, and I would give space for God to show me how He would choose to use me in those spaces.

At first, much of the time was spent in my own transition of grieving the stage that was past, intense prayer for all of us, reading intently, working through many things in conversation with God.  As time went on, He began to use me in reaching out to others.  Through the wonderful promptings of His Spirit, there would be a nudge to send a card, to share a quote, or to give a quick call to ask how someone was doing.  There was time to begin a prayer ministry that I had wanted to begin for a long time, praying for people on Facebook.  He had me lead a women's study at our church, Unglued by Lysa Terkeurst, that has helped give us tools to make imperfect progress with our emotional reactions.  In these experiences, God's timing has been confirmed over and over, deepening my trust in Him and His plan. 

Then it felt like God led me into school (completely separate from the one class that I was taking).  In a matter of weeks, I found myself being dropped into several different group experiences - one for women leading women by that involved leadership coaching, another for fitness, and one for business.  None of them were sought out specifically, but God engineered ways to place me where I needed to be.  Each one seemed to fit so neatly with the others in taking me through a process of moving beyond the inner critic to find the skills, strengths, and calling that God is using me for in this season.

As the sabbatical draws to a close, I'm finding myself ready to be embarking on this new stage of the journey.  I'll be training to become a life coach and spiritual director, working from a Christian perspective, potentially with a focus on working with those who are dealing with grief.  The more I learn about these related yet distinctly different paths, the more it feels like this is what I have been created to do.  The random experiences and personality quirks that didn't make much sense before combine in an amazing way when looking at what is needed for this new part of the journey.  God's hand has been incredibly evident as I go throughout this learning time, and I'm prayerfully excited to see what He has in store in this not-yet-time-for-Abigail-to-be-joining-us time!

He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see what He has done and be amazed.  They will put their trust in the LORD.  Psalm 40:3 NLT