Life's Direction

[Spokane Flyboy]

The past few months, I've been feeling like Spokane isn't where I'm supposed to be. It was never supposed to be permanent in the first place. My original plan was to spend two years here for college, transfer to the University of North Dakota to finish my last two years, and then go on to Alaska and work as a bush pilot. That was the plan coming out of high school anyway. Well, eight years later and I'm still here kinda spinning my wheels. I had plans to move back to Alaska, but doors kept closing and the past several winters here have made me hardly want to deal with the ones in Spokane, much less back home in Alaska. The thought of uprooting from a church I've been comfortable in and leaving friends to reestablish myself have also kept me from moving. However, this spring I started feeling my church isn't were I need to be now. It's a great church, but I find myself at a point I could preach the sermons myself and nearly all but one good friend has moved away as of this summer.

Added to the events of the past couple weeks, I've felt more and more called to move near my friend in Alabama I mentioned in another thread. I don't know why I feel the calling, or what purpose might be in it, but I feel oddly at peace about it. It could just be in my head I suppose, but it might not be. Just on a whim, I looked at jobs in the area and there's one about an hour from where she lives that is similar to the job I've been doing here for the last two and a half years. So, I've put in an application and will soon be sending along my résumé with it. I suppose if this is of God, something might come of this application. I know the cost of living looks more affordable down there, so that would also be a plus. I'm kinda hoping maybe this job application goes through and works out. I'd be within less than a day's driving distance from four of my closest friends if I moved there.

So just prayer in direction, the job, being able to pack up and move, etc. would be nice.

[metalikhan]

I firmly believe that when God shuts a door in your life, there's no way you can keep it open or barge back through without His chastisement.

When He opens a door in your life, you can, of course, refuse to go, but not without His chastisement and not without losing the blessing He had for you if you'd chosen obedience to Him. If you choose obedience to His personal will for you, He will provide what you need in order for you to be where He wants you to be.

This belief does not come out of what book I've read or what sermon I've heard. It comes out of personal experience in my own walk with God.

You got it, Flyboy -- praying God makes clear to you the direction He wants you to take, smooths your path toward the job He wants you to do for Him, and blesses you with strength and His peace in going through whatever door He opens for you.

[metalikhan]

BTW, should you move, will you be changing the Spokane part of your name?

[birdnerd]

Sometimes it's hard to tell where God's leading. I mean, sometimes he's as obvious as a neon sign and other times he seems pretty quiet.

If you're not getting the neon sign, then you're taking the right approach, I think. Try something. If it works out, God' is either directing it or permitting it.

In my experience, he's very good a slamming doors he doesn't want us to go through.

[beckyminor]

Hey, SF...praying for you that God's direction would be clear and that he will bless you as you choose to follow him. No matter what happens with the relationship, sometimes we just have to be willing to shake the etch-a-sketch and start fresh in order to see something better the Lord has for us, I think.

[Spokane Flyboy]

Well. I've sent in my cover letter and résumé. I suppose I shall see where this goes.

[waldenwriter]

I hope things work out for you. I myself am uncertain as to my life's direction, and I'm less brave than you at taking a leap into the unknown. But I still hope things work out. (I'm not going to say I will pray because I know I will probably forget to).

[Spokane Flyboy]

I'm still grappling with this. I haven't heard from them on the job, and emails so far have yielded nothing. I'm going to try one more attempt to work from the bottom up by contacting the ticket counter at the airport and hope I get an employee that knows more about his own company than the last one. To add to it, my friend has been rather quiet and distant since Monday and I'm not sure why. In some ways, it makes me not want to move. In others, it makes me wonder if it's part of why God is calling me to move if it is indeed God calling me.

My good friends, and a pastor that I'm close with think I should take the step of faith and move down there. I suppose I just wonder, still, if it's God's calling or if I'm just crazy. Either way, I feel oddly at peace in my heart, just not so much in my head. Though, my head always doubts even when I have every reason to be certain.

[metalikhan]

My folks moved frequently over long distances -- Missouri, California, Colorado, Nebraska. For me, there were also brief jaunts down to South Carolina and Florida. In all, we racked up over 30 moves, most of which occured within a 15 year period. It gave me an odd perspective about places to live: places are transient. Only God is permanent.

Each place had pluses and minuses; but every time it seemed we were becoming too comfortable in a place, circumstances changed, often so dramatically there was no way we could stay.

As I look back, there were so many lessons God made available for me that I would never have learned otherwise. It made me aware that He can move us either to set down roots and occupy or to stay for a season for His purposes (for us or for someone He wants us to touch on His behalf) and then move on to His next destination.

God may want to break you out of a comfort zone. As a pilot, you already have a mobility not available to most of us. It may be that He wants to fine tune a mobility of heart for His purposes.

A place is only a landing site if God wants you delivering His message or supplying His missionaries in the wider world. Don't let a place clip your wings, Flyboy.

[newburydave]

When a mama eagle wants to get the eaglets to get out of the nest she pulls out the down and padding to let them down on the thorns that the main nest is built out of.

Are you feeling the thorns SF?

I'd caution you against moving without a job to go to in this economy. Five days isn't much in a hiring cycle. As a former hiring manager it frequently took me several weeks to call people in for interviews.

In patience and prayer possess ye your soul. When God opens the door you'll know.

Praying for you my brother

SGD
dave

[Spokane Flyboy]

That's always the trouble for me. With my job experience and history, unfortunately I'm limited to entry-level positions such as air-port ramper, grocery store stocker, floor associate at retail stores, or general labor. These are all jobs that don't normally advertise much and really require me to be on the ground doing footwork. So it's kind of an awkward position. Though I'm not opposed to going hobo and living out of my backpacking gear for a bit if God ultimately sends me with little money and no job to start. My hope is to find a job while I'm down there visiting. I'm planning two weeks down there as it is, which should give a decent idea of the job market I imagine. It's all in God's hands, I just hope I'm listening when He speaks.

[beckyminor]

Yeah, the visit sounds like a good way to scope things out, at least. Praying the Lord paves the way for you, whatever direction that may be, SF.