Tag: Philippians 3

10 years + forever.

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This summer, Kevin and I will celebrate ten years of marriage.

After dating/engagement for almost four years, we got married on July 5, 2013, in a grassy field in the middle of a park in downtown Lawrence, Kan. We made a commitment to love one another, to choose one another – in sickness and in health – for richer and for poorer – until death do us part. Ten wonderful years we’ve had in the covenant of marriage, and truly, I treasure every second of it.

Our first five years before having children were dedicated to pursuing a call to ministry through the mission of Young Life. I’ll never forget the day that Kevin and I were on a bike ride “date” from our rental house on Tennessee Street to that same park at which we said our vows. After talking about the potential of grad school and moving away for several years of dating and early marriage, I challenged Kevin to truly lead me, to lead our marriage, and decide if we would stay in Lawrence or move away. He rose to the challenge and boldly told me the Lord was calling us to stay. I rode my bike the entire way home in silence, angry at God and at Kevin. I didn’t understand what was next for us here in Lawrence. 

It was only a few months later that the Lord made it clear why He called us to stay. He provided an opportunity for Kevin to come on full-time Young Life staff as the KU Young Life College director in 2015. We got a dog, found Free City Church, bought a house, and made Lawrence our home.

In this next season with Kevin on staff, we had all three of our children – Lydia in 2018, Eliza in 2019, and Caleb in 2021. While my role within Young Life shifted between volunteer to part-time staff back to volunteer, our primary family mission remained the same: to share Jesus with college students and help them grow in their faith. We spent many summers and weekends with our growing family at Young Life camp. We spent countless hours on KU’s campus at Young Life Club, leading small groups, and meeting with students in coffee shops. We’ve met and had the opportunity to get to know so many incredible people through this ministry from all over the country. Many of our best friends we met through this ministry. We’ve been ministered to and ministered through the mission of Young Life on staff or as volunteers for all 14 of our years following Jesus together. 

It is with this beginning that Kevin and I share that our chapter on Young Life staff has formally come to close.

Leaving Young Life staff was an emotional decision for us, and one that we have spent many hours talking over together, in community, and with the Lord discerning next steps. I have wrestled much with God as I process through the callings He has for us, and the purpose He has for Kevin, who is truly the most gifted minister I know. What we’ve heard from God over again is that a change in his job is not a change in his calling. For the gifts and calling of Christ are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). 

Rather than a calling away from ministry, God is calling my husband—both of us—to ministry in different spaces and in different ways. Last August, the Lord led me first to step away from Young Life and on staff in the role of KIDS and Communication Director at Free City Church. He has affirmed this calling as the exact fit for me and for our family in this season of our lives. As we waited and continued to listen for Kevin’s next steps, our biggest prayer was that it would be a job that served people in the local Lawrence community, provided a work-life balance that would allow him to be present at home and in church ministry, and would financially provide for our family of five. 

This prayer, the Lord answered, far beyond our expectations. We are excited to announce that Kevin has accepted a role as an Associate Financial Advisor with Edmonds Duncan Registered Investment Advisors. With their office located in downtown Lawrence, Edmonds Duncan helps individuals in our local community achieve financial objectives with confidence and personal service. We are so grateful, and I can’t wait to see Kevin take on a new challenge and a new adventure!

This has truly been a season of transition in many areas. As we cross over our 10-year wedding anniversary in a few weeks, Kevin will start his new job and our oldest daughter Lydia will prepare to start Kindergarten. Our church is going through a transition as well, having launched out a new church in Topeka, Kan., sending out many of our dearest friends, and I step into a deeper role on church staff here in Lawrence.

When it seems that I am facing change all around me, it’s the Word of God that brings me great comfort and peace:

“But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
-Philippians 3:7-8

Young Life staff has been an identity marker for us. I have been proud of our role and the way Kevin has served the Lord faithfully as the KU College Director. I have loved this season of having and raising little children. I have so many fears as I look ahead to the next chapter: having school-aged children, Kevin transitioning out of ministry, and our community here in Lawrence shifting. This verse from Philippians reminds me that any circumstances I could control or chose for myself, I count as “loss” when compared to the incomprehensible value of knowing and following Christ.

When my foundation is Him, though the rains will fall, and the floods will rise, I will not collapse, because my peace and joy is built on the Rock (Matthew 7:24-25). 

The intimacy I experience with Christ through obedience and faith is far more fulfilling than any other life I could make up for myself. For me, to live is Christ (Phil 1:21). 

In the midst of change –
here’s to 10 years of marriage,
to the next 10 years,
and
Lord willing,
the next 20, 30, 40, and 50 years.

Our circumstances,
our community,
our jobs,
will likely change again over this time frame.
Our marriage will grow and continue to sanctify us.
Our children will grow up and move away.

But one thing remains:
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

God is working all things for my good
and
His glory.
He is worthy of all my trust
and
all my life,
in every season
forever.

may is here.

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May is here.

The month we’ve waiting for. The month of the due date for our first child.

At 37 weeks on Monday, medically I am considered full-term. Baby Lydia is fully developed at this point. She’s dropped into the head down position and I’m dilated 2 centimeters and 80 percent effaced. Now it’s just a waiting game.

Apparently I look 8 ½ months pregnant because how big I am tends to dominate my every conversation with friends, coworkers and strangers. One of the common questions I recieve on a daily basis is, Are you ready? That’s a tough question to answer.

Sometimes I answer with an quick yes.
Kevin and I are so excited to be parents!
We can’t wait to meet Lydia!
We have all the items we need, the hospital bag packed, and our to-do lists completed.
We are ready for her, any day now!

And then occasionally someone will ask me on a day when I’m feeling a bit more realistic. I might answer with an as ready as I can be, honestly doubting that achieving the state of “readiness” is even possible.

The conversation typically continues with people offering their best advice or words of wisdom.

You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.
Your life is about to change forever.
You’ll regret not having an epidural, you’re submitting yourself to torture.
Natural birth is the best choice I ever made, it’s wonderful.
Being a parent is amazing.
Your life is over.
You’ll love being a mom!
Are you sure you’re ready to be a mom?

 

C H A N G E .

I’ve been through various changes and transitions in my life, but never one so physically obvious to others. Strangers take one look at me and know that I’m getting ready to embark on one of the biggest “changes” that anyone can go through.

Here’s the deal. While I’m still on the waiting side of motherhood, if there is anything that I’ve learned in my short 27 years of life it’s this: There are only two constants in life, God and change.

“For I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)

God is who He says He is. He is unchanging, unwavering, eternal. Thank the Lord there is One who is consistent and One who never changes!

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

The only other thing that is certain is that change will happen. It is an inevitable part of human life. Most of us naturally avoid change and anticipate change as a bad thing. Yet often, it’s unavoidable and out of our control. However, change is the only way that we grow and are challenged to become more of the humans that we were ultimately created to be.

 

T R A N S F O R M .

The other known thing about change is that usually we will first try to manage it on our own without God. Here I am, weeks or possibly days away from the biggest change of my life, and I am finding much of my confidence in the to-do lists, the preparations, and my own physical body.

At our doctor’s appointment last week, I found out that Lydia has dropped into the perfect head down position. I got the numbers on the dilation and effacement, and I left my appointment elated by my own self-righteousness, thinking I’m good to go. My body is built for childbirth. (I am honestly embarrassed to type out those thoughts but truly that’s what was going through my mind!) Then the next day I got a phone call from my doctor’s office that I tested positive for group B Strep, which means that I’ll need an antibiotic as soon as I go into labor so it’s not passed on to Lydia when she’s born. I got off the phone and immediately realized that this diagnosis actually was a blessing. I needed a direct reminder from God that no, it’s not up to my physical body how my child birth will go. It’s not up to the preparations I’ve made for labor. Her healthy delivery is completely and wholly in God’s control.

The next day I was reading Philippians 3 and found affirmation in God’s voice from the following scripture:

“We… worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3)

My confidence is not in my physical body or the current state of baby Lydia. My confidence is in the Lord, His goodness and His promises.

Though my flesh is weak, His Spirit is strong in me (Matthew 26:40).
He will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body (Philippians 3:21).
He will transform our hearts and minds to be like that of Christ (Romans 12:2).
In the hard and the dark moments of childbirth and parenting, I don’t have to fear or have anxiety, because I rely on the Holy Spirit.
He will intervene in those difficult moments giving me discernment and strength.
I don’t have to fear change because of God’s promise to never leave me nor forsake me (Joshua 1:15, Hebrews 13:5).
He will be with me always (Matthew 28:20).

“God is not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19)

This is why I think of this upcoming season less as merely change and more as an opportunity for God to transform me into the woman that He has ultimately created me to be.

 

P R E S S . O N .

In confidence, because I know that God is with me and in me, as May is here, I have the great privilege of living out this commision:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss of the sake of Christ…. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:7-14)

I’ll end with this. Perhaps one of the most cliché Bible verses about having a child says that every good and perfect gift comes from above. This is true! Lydia is a gift from God above! Yet read the second half of the verse and take comfort. In this life we will change, but God, thank God, You never will.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)