The Story of Awesome

I would like to expand the 140 characters of a recent "tweet" I "tweeted" (I'm still very uncomfortable with these words). The "tweet" went like this:

I was just told on the phone that I'm a "rare combination of talents and experiences." I think that's the best compliment I've ever received.

The story behind this tweet is a good one...one that has taken me a while to sort through and compile my thoughts on. The story begins with me, through a series of fortunate events, finding myself staring down a 'preliminary application form' on the website of a mission organization that focuses its outreach to Europe. That little blinking cursor was staring me in the face, begging me to type in my last name.

Let me pull back from the story for a second and say this: I'm not supposed to move back overseas right now. I KNOW that. I felt God pulling me back to Florida (He gently pulled as I kicked and whined like a toddler) about a year and a half ago, and I haven't yet felt the pull back to the UK for a permanent placement. I continued to stare at the screen and tell it all of this, but it wouldn't listen. I began to feel this crazy weird tug to fill out the information. "Ok God...you don't want me to go overseas right now, but you want me to tell this organization that I DO want to?" I suppose when scripture said God would direct our steps it didn't designate that we would understand where they're headed.

I filled out my info.

I got a call from a lady at the organization.

After a few preliminary questions, she inquired: "So, you are interested in moving back to England soon?"

"Umm...I don't think so."

Do you want to feel like an idiot? Tell someone you want to do something, then when they inquire further, tell them you don't. Still, she asked me to share my story with her and said she would call me back in 2 weeks.

I received that second phone call - this time with the same lady and one other guy from the organization who is helping to start the initiative of church-planting in the UK (this organization currently doesn't have any missionaries on the field in England, but they are working that direction). She asked me to tell my story again, so I did.

THIS is where the guy on the phone responded to my blabbing on about myself with what I later "tweeted" - that I am a "rare combination of talents and experiences."

You see, this guy (and several others) have been praying hard over the last couple of months for God to send them the right people for this brand new initiative to the UK. They aren't just looking for people ready to move overseas right now...they are looking for people to help shape the vision BEFORE that stage to move over permanently opens up. They need creative thinkers and people with experience in British ministry to help them brainstorm about what mission there looks like, and how to market that to potential supporters. They asked the Lord to send them people with church planting experience...who have been involved in youth ministry in the context of British teens...someone with a creative mind, perhaps with abilities in graphic design...hopefully with good contacts with college-age students who would be interested in missions...

Did you read that?? Because that is the part where my brain exploded. I have a degree in Bible and Graphic Design. I was on a church-planting team in England, and worked mostly with youth while I was there. I now work at Florida Christian College and have been asked to speak in Missions & Evangelism classes about Europe...

I have been confused about myself over the last few years. I have been thinking that the randomness that makes up my life is "my fault" - that I have been too random, wayward, vagabond-ish...unable to make up my mind about anything, and therefore unable to decipher the great mystery of God's will for my life.

Have you ever found a puzzle piece - just found it somewhere, without the context of the rest of the pieces or the picture on the box? It makes no sense! Shapes, colors, textures with no context. It's confusing, and it makes no sense alone...

Could it be possible that what seemed like me having the inability to figure out God's will for my life was in reality God shaping me for a purpose? Could it be that the seeming randomness of my life was actually not so random...but perfect? Did God actually pay attention when He "knit me together in my mother's womb"? Can I finally trust that God has "the front of the box" and knows where each and every one of us has the unique ability to fit?

What a concept.

Obviously, I have been excited about this. What this means for me now is that I am able to keep my stable job near family and friends, but am now also finding myself in phone conferences with like-minded people who are excited about what can happen when we brainstorm together about what Christ wants to do through us in the UK. Right now, I am in the process of praying for a team to lead to England for 2 weeks in the summer as part of a fact-finding, survey-taking process that is necessary to pave the way for *someone* years from now to be permanently placed there. Maybe by that time I will feel that pull back to England, or maybe I will never leave Central Florida again...either way, I am thankful for a God that knows me better than I know myself.