Do you ever have nights where you can’t sleep? Where you’re so exhausted but you can’t seem turn off your brain? Last night was one of those nights. I was mulling over paint colors for my new-to-me table and chairs, and how I was going to manage to paint them in the next 3 days. Thinking about how many boxes I have yet to pack before we move this week. I reflected on how much further we have to go with our church plant, and how much more recruiting needs to be done. Worried about finances and logistics for the church. Then I prayed. I asked God to let me sleep. And sleep didn’t come. And so I counted…1, 2, 3, etc. until another thought would pop in my head. And the cycle would continue. Amazingly, eventually I fell back asleep just in the nick of time, before my alarm went off.
Nights like this are not unfamiliar to me. In fact, it’s pretty normal. I’m a doer, a fixer, a list maker, and master controller. I can do all things, manage all things, well…because I’m me.
Last January, instead of choosing a New Year’s resolution, I decided to choose a verse for the year. A verse I’d reflect on, and use to guide me for 2019. The verse I chose was Isaiah 43:19:
“ For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
See, last year about this time, my husband and I felt a stirring that change was coming, and maybe more change than we’ve ever experienced. And even though I couldn’t see what was coming, this verse was a comfort to me in knowing that God was not only about to do something new, but that HE would make a way for it to happen.
Not too many months passed before we felt the call to start a new church. We still didn’t know exactly what that would look like, and so I continued to trust that God would make a pathway for us. Because it honestly felt like a dry wasteland. We had NO idea where we were going to go and how God would provide for our family while starting a new church.
We prayed and prayed and trusted and prayed, and prayed some more. And after truly listening to His voice, we heard his calling to Huntsville, AL. After that process of surrender, there as an amazing peace that we were on the right path. And again, I felt like God was showing us the way.
This summer, we packed up our lives in Wheaton, IL and moved our 3 kids to Alabama. There were many tears driving away from that season of ministry and a place, that was home for me. It felt crazy, and lonely, and scary, and exciting all at the same time! I’d come back to this verse often.
“Shannon, I’m about to do something new. Don’t worry, I’ve already begun, do you not see it?” Let me stop there. What about that question from God? Whoa! How quickly do we forget to acknowledge how He’s taken care of us and how He’s provided for every need. Do we stop to look around and see Him? He says, “I will make a pathway for you, in this place where you can’t find your way around. A place that’s new and foreign. And I will create life in the places that seem dry. I will create something from nothing.”
I’ve spent so many years working hard, and doing things on my own, and shoving and pushing things forward, because I can. For the first time, I stopped and thought. Ok, God, let’s do this your way. You are going to be the one to create all of this. Not me. Church planting is it’s own animal and it’s a lot of work, with many moving parts. But instead of me driving the ship, I asked God to. I’d meet someone and start a relationship, but I’d ask God to guide the interactions. I’d leave room for Him. I’d try to take it one day at a time and ask God, “what is it that you want me to do today?” I tried to truly trust God for that day. It’s sad when I realized how little I’ve done that. How often I jump ahead, how I’ve played the role of God, controlling things, and just doing them in my own strength. Let me tell you, what I found through letting him make a way. FREEDOM. There is so much relief and freedom in letting God write the story instead of me insisting on being the author.
I’ve claimed this verse over and over. Put it on my computer desktop, saved an image of it on my phone. Put it in places, where I’d be constantly reminded of God’s words to me. And on really hard days, I’d claim it more. “Ok, God, this is what you said!” And I’d pray that verse. And stand on it’s truth.
We have lived in Alabama for 6 months, and church planting, is just taking shape. We will launch with our first service in Madison, AL on September 13. There have been high highs and low lows. I’ve been praying about a new verse for 2020 and when it came down to it, I realized that I’m not ready to move on from this one. It’s just been too powerful, and too much of what I need. I’m going to continue to claim it, among others, as I move forward through this year.
So let me speak this over you today as well, and maybe, just maybe it’s what God wants to share with you too.
“ For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:19
Shannon Bradford and her husband Brian, are planting Rocket City Church in Madison, AL. They have 3 kids, Halle, Lily, and Titus. She is a master organizer, shopper, Realtor, and Director of The Pastor’s Spouse Connection.
