I’ve spent half my life in this town of Colorado—nearly all my adult life. I came to visit family in this town as a child and never cared for it because of the desert brown surroundings that was a far cry from the many green trees I was used to. Now that I’m getting ready to leave this town and move to the lush green area God has for us, I find myself reflecting back on the past 22 years that I’ve called this town home.

I drove into town with my belongings, a fearful and pain-filled young adult. The brown desert view reflected how I felt inside. Running, scared, and confused, I tried to create a new life for myself. Pain was the roommate I could never kick out the first 22 years, no matter how hard I tried. I remember telling my mentor, When will this pain ever end?

Looking back, my time in this town has felt like a rebuilding process–a time of assessing the damage, cleaning out the mess, and rebuilding. To be quite honest, every step of the way felt torturous, but I was relentless to keep on. God never dropped me but held me close to His side. I see now His constant presence was what kept me going.

Slowly, trials and obstacles turned into one step of obedience to God at a time out of the darkness. Pain and chaos vanished and joy and peace arrived. Fear melted away while trust in God emerged.

The frail but spitfire of a young woman I was first driving into town that day in May of 1990, feels like a distant memory. It’s hard to imagine myself where I used to be … but what is crystal clear is the reality of my life that God transformed.

I leave this town not feeling remodeled, but rebuilt. God didn’t just throw on a coat of paint in my life to cover up imperfections. He stripped me down to the bare dirt ground—not to inflict pain—but so he could begin to rebuild my foundation and framework to create the woman He desired me to be.

As I move forward to the next phase of this journey called life that God has for me, I’m energized, hopeful, excited, and can’t wait to see what God has next. It’s a start in a new chapter of my life’s story.

Take time today to reflect back on your life. It may be you’d rather forget segments, but don’t skip over. God was there in those times … lovingly waiting for you. Don’t miss an opportunity to remember what God has done in your life.

Stepping out in faith. Take a leap of faith. We’ve all heard of the phrases, but what do they really mean? It’s having no understanding or inkling of how God is going to do something, but stepping out in obedience anyway believing He will come through and do what He said He will do regardless of how it looks from our view. What a scary thing to do!

When I think of faith, I think of the Israelites. They wandered for 40 years and finally the time came to enter the Promised Land. The only problem—the Jordan River lay between them and the Promised Land and on top of that, it was spring time when the waters were at flood-level. Their minds were no doubt racing to the inconvenient timing and lack of boats to help them across. But thankfully God wasn’t limited to their understanding.

I just love what God asked the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant to do – step into the water and stop. I’m not sure how steep the river bank was, but regardless … that’s active faith! God requires we take the steps into the unknown without knowing how it’s going to play out. Once we do, he then tells us the next step. What an adventure. What a leap of faith!

With our upcoming move cross-country nearing, we have found ourselves in that same spot – in obedience we’ve stepped into the flood-level waters and stopped. There were and still are many unknowns before us, but at the same time God only asks us to focus on what He says to do next. We’ve learned that each unknown is an opportunity to see the incredible power of God at work. That alone makes me excited to wake up each morning and see what God is going to do next!

We may not know what is up ahead, but we can find comfort in knowing that God has already gone before us and is leading the way. That’s what faith is all about.

Faith is like radar that sees through the fog.  ~Corrie Ten Boom

One day last week I saw hundreds of birds in the field across the street. Within seconds, they moved in unison like a school of fish, flying up and over to a new destination. I watched in amazement.

For days I studied the pictures I took fascinated by the synchronization. Each bird knew when to leave, at what precise moment to leave, and then took off. Being in sync meant they clearly picked up their cue from the next one. It happened so fast, it looked magical.

I thought about how life works following God. When I wait in stillness for His direction, I want to know His cue so clearly that when He says “now,” I take off in synch—not too soon and not too late. Just right on cue!

We each travel our own journey in following God, so we can’t take our cue from the person next to us. But I do believe God stirs up movements – within us, around us, and to propel us to go toward … sometimes to a new destination. We just need to join Him in what He’s doing.

Sometimes moves of God aren’t so abrupt like the hundreds of birds I saw last week. At times moves of God are a building, growing process—step by step. God works in many different ways. Whichever way He chooses, we need to strive to know—truly know—that nudge, guidance, and peace when God says, “Do this now.”

That means we have to be actively listening … watching … waiting.

It makes for a different focus each day, don’t you think?