To live out the life God's called you too, is to recognize the bountiful opportunities right where you are.  I know I've said that a lot, but honestly I cannot say it enough.  You don't have to be across seas to be fulfilling God's will.  As a matter of fact, you have been placed in this town, with this job, surrounded by these people for a very Devine reason.  Perhaps your job is the means to be able to adopt a child like a friend of mine.  Perhaps your job is a gateway to get to where God really needs you.  We all have different stories.

My in-laws are missionaries in Papua New Guinea.  They don't live out in the middle of the jungle in mud huts, hunting for their food.  They live in a not so extravagant house, with the bare essentials.  My father-in-law is an airplane mechanic and my mother-in-law works in an office.  Without their jobs, the missionaries that are called out into the jungle would not exist.  Each job is useful, needed, and just as important as the other.

I find that these days we all are starving for significance.  It's hard to stand out in a world that is exposed at our finger tips.  The internet has become an avenue to replicate anything or anyone in an instant.  You see a haircut, a pair of shoes, a birthday cake, a family portrait that you like and the next day you've either ordered it online, found out how to make it yourself, or posted it on Facebook.  You want to be noticed.  You want to stand out, and most of the time you're everyday life feels uneventful, unnoticed, and unwanted.

The search for significance will never end if you are looking for someone to notice you.  It WILL end if you can learn to be content and find joy and satisfaction right where you are.  I don't mean for you to be comfortable, I mean for you to be relentless at making yourself better and seizing the moment, seeing every opportunity as a REAL gift from God.

You only have one life.  How do you want to live it?

When my daughter was two we lived at the beach.  I remember walking on the beach one cool morning with her looking for shells.  At some point we separated and went on our own paths to find shells.  When we got back together we sat down on the damp beach and laid out our findings.  I displayed my collection of perfect shells, beautiful in color and chipless in design.  There wasn't a hole in sight.  I was proud.  It was a lot of work to find such beauties.  Then she dumped out her collection.  I looked at her shells, mostly fragments and pieces.  There were a few whole shells but even those had holes in them.  Most were gray and brown.  She smiled at me so proudly.  I offered a perfect shell to her but she turned me down.  It was then that I saw my own imperfection that I was not born with but taught by a very broken world.  Only through the eyes of a two year old can you see something broken and ugly and find it beautiful.  Well I am still learning to see the world like my children do.  There is not a butterfly unnoticed, a flower not picked, a caterpillar not collected and dirt not untouched by the little hands of God.  I want to look at the town we are in just like that.  I want us to look at our jobs just like that, and most importantly I do not want to pass through this world without noticing the beauty in brokenness and miss the opportunity to fully live the way God has called me to.  What will you notice the beauty in today?

Three years ago we came here to Martinsville because of Chick-fil-A.  We drove up here with snow still on the ground.  Back then we lived up on one of the biggest hills in the area.  I never knew the expression, "we walked up hill both ways" was a true statement.  Here in Martinsville you will find yourself walking up hills both ways, both physically and figuratively speaking.   I now know that Chick-fil-A isn't the reason for us being here but more of a means to something even bigger.  I can feel it.  God shows glimpses of where our journey will be heading.  I know the road will be long, but I truly believe that it's already being paved for us, as long as we recognize that we are EXACTLY where God wants us! 

How I got here.

Here I am.  In a small town.  A town that almost seems forgotten except two times a year when the race arrives.  A town where people smile at you in the Walmart parking lot, beep at you in the car just to say hi, and join together with a mighty force when you deeply need it.  Yep, I am home.  Not the home I ever imagined, but the home that God knew I needed.  With that said, I am on a journey to show the world that you are exactly where God wants you to be.  Your feeling of insignificance is only because you are being held back by all the what if's instead of embracing the what now's!