Pick Up Something Greater

Well, today marks my first post here on Embrace YOUR Life!  I'm so excited to be writing here and I can't wait to share with you all some insights, life lessons, life experience, and hopefully a few laughs along the way!  I decided that today I should start by sort of sharing with you some of the most life changing revelations I have learned in the past few months.  You see, I recently moved here to Freeport, Grand Bahamas with my husband Jonathan.  He is a med student at Ross University.  We left behind a cute little life in Houston, Texas where I was teaching middle school, he was teaching high school, and we were enjoying the comfort of our first home.  Then everything changed.  We had some HUGE curve balls thrown at us, and Jonathan felt highly convicted to become a physician after much thought and prayer.  And miraculously, God provided a way for us to fulfill that calling.  Hence why we left everything and came here!

So I came across this quote not too long ago and I think it is PERFECT for what we are walking right now.  I kind of wish I'd read it a few years ago:

Do you ever feel like if you take a leap of faith, even if you feel REALLY convicted to do that, that you'll lose everything you've worked for?  That taking that plunge might mean you come up with nothing in the end?  I felt that way too.  When the time came for me to quit my perfect little job and sell our perfect little house and leave our perfect little life, I thought taking that leap would mean I'd be broke, homeless, and friendless.  But let me tell you, it doesn't work like that!  When God is calling you to leave something at His feet, it's not because He thinks you shouldn't have everything wonderful that life has to offer.  It's because there's something far greater out there for you!  What you have clenched in your fists is usually miniscule in comparison to what you could pick up if you'd just let go.  What's awaiting you behind that door of "blind faith" is unfathomable.  And the minute you realize that you can't hold on forever is the minute you realize you don't need to!

I am by no means "finished" with this journey that Jonathan and I are walking right now.  But I am finding little things along the path that remind me that there are better things awaiting me if I just keep pressing on.  I've been reminded that material things (like a house, a car, money) really honestly are not the key to happiness.  I had all those things and I was happy, yes!  But now, I don't have any of those things (unless you count my one bedroom scantly furnished bungalow as a "house"), and I'm HAPPY! Go figure!  My happiness comes from the love of my friends and family, the beauty of the world around me (and the gorgeous beaches here in Freeport!), the love of my husband, and my relationship with my Lord.  There are difficult days, don't get me wrong.  But I do try to take those days in stride and keep my eyes on the prize...

My challenge to you as we go into this weekend, is to assess what it is in your life that truly makes you happy.  Think outside the box!  My question to you is this:  If you were asked to drop EVERYTHING in your life right now in order to receive something greater, would you do it?  Could you do it?  What's holding you back?  

If you think that you can't, let me be the first to tell you that YOU CAN!  The greatest things in life are not lost on a leap of faith...

Just jump...