About nine months ago, I came out of hiding. Hiding from hard things. Hiding from difficult people. Hiding from misplaced embarrassment about a failed adoption. Hiding from the discomfort of living in a fallen world. This was a self-imposed hiding and not something forced upon me by others. I had some frustrations to cause me to seek refuge on my farm and shy away from town. I literally didn’t go to our local store, Dollar General, or to any other stores in town for almost three years because I just didn’t want to see anyone or have to explain to anyone how hard the past several years had been on our farm. Years of severe drought on our farm and frustrations with only a few people out of hundreds of lovely people had caused me to make incorrect assumptions about my value in our little town.

Thank goodness, God sought me out. He brought me out of hiding. He exposed the lie that the devil had worked overtime to make me believe. God clearly created me with a deep desire for relationships and connection. It has been the stalwart of my existence since I was a toddler. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love people. I love to meet and connect with people of all ages, all races, all socio-economic backgrounds, and all religions. God made me extremely outgoing so I am always thrilled to meet and learn from others on this journey of life. I am grateful for the way He made me because I know that meeting and interacting with strangers is extremely difficult for many others.

Since December of 2020 when I retired from teaching, the successive years of drought and isolation had done something to my thoughts. I had completely forgotten my role in this world and made decisions to purposely pull away from interaction with others. The Outdoorsman and I were so serious about making a change that we hired a realtor in Arkansas and another one in Missouri to look for remote farms in the mountains so we could move further away from people to a cooler environment. No, I am not kidding. Thank God, He got my attention before we took the plunge into extreme isolation. We would have regretted it greatly to find ourselves further from our three amazing young adult children and our supportive, loving families. We had convinced ourselves it wasn’t too far away from them, but the reality is that it would have made regular interaction much more difficult and less frequent. We have already seen the positive fruits of staying on Green Acres because our children have all ended up living closer than we anticipated due to their adventurous spirits! We are thankful that we didn’t take the plunge even though it was really tempting when our entire farm was brown, depressing, and lifeless due to the extreme drought of 2023.

About nine months ago, I started reading my Bible more regularly and also began reading some really good, thought-provoking Christian books. God used His word and the wisdom of others to blow the doors off of my plan to run to the hills.

He reminded me of who I am: A teacher. A leader. A gatherer of people. Those crystal clear reminders flooded in quickly as I read Jamie Winship’s book Living Fearless. I am so thankful for the boldness in his own life and his boldness in helping others find the true calling. In addition to that book, I also read Bob Goff’s three books Undistracted, Love Does, and Everybody Always. I read them in that order and had never heard of Bob Goff until I had read Undistracted and excitedly called my daughter to tell her about this “new guy” named Bob Goff and she started laughing and said “Mom!! Everyone at Baylor was obsessed with Bob Goff. He use to come speak on campus when I was there!” Well, did I mention I don’t pay much attention to the current news or the current craze?!

Right away after starting to spend time in His word again, God gave me some clear direction to start entering back into my local community in a new, creative way. He called me to start a group with local women. I prayed about who to invite and He gave me the names of who to contact. There were twenty names on the list. They were not all people whom I interacted with so it felt a little funny to reach out to some of them. He told me not to worry about who said yes and who said no and to trust Him with that instead. Fourteen of them said they will give it a try. About half of those ended up not coming for one reason or another. Well, He has blown my socks off with his creative gathering of women. There are only six of us who have stayed the course, but there were eight in the beginning. It is a motley crew. We represent three decades. We represent three different religious denominations. We are all, somehow, connected to education and learning. Loving children and loving Jesus is our thread of commonality. It has been so affirming, so fun, and so exhilarating to know that, after meeting for only four or five months together, these women truly KNOW me. We have cried together, laughed together, and prayed together. We have shared our hopes, our dreams, and our future goals. They understand my mind and my heart and they encourage me to venture out in every way possible. We have all been able to watch one another start new jobs, start new projects, and start working on tough relationships. God is the foundation of our meetings, but our support for one another gives us the courage to blaze ahead.

One of the many things God called me to do was to get out into the local community more. When an opportunity arose to help one of our group members open a store in town, I jumped at the chance to support her by helping brainstorm creative ideas and by participating as a vendor in her store along with working at her store one day each week. It has been a huge blessing to be involved with Fourth Street Mercantile and I view the entire experience as a blessing that came as a direct result of listening to God when He told me to get back out into the community. I have loved interacting with people in our small town every time I work at the store. It has truly been a blessing.

Now, I am feeling invigorated. My heart is happy. My mind is back to its normal, healthy place of looking forward to seeing people again and meeting new people and old people in the community who I didn’t have an opportunity to meet through my years of teaching.

My Friend, God wants you to listen to the calling He has on your life. He has created you with gifts and talents in a special combination that only you possess. Whether your talents are in the areas of writing, teaching, hosting, sewing, cooking, helping others, painting, welding, flower arranging, quilting, making honey, creating art, taking pictures, or preaching, they are all important roles in meeting the needs of the people in your community or your circle of influence. Try hard to stay in your own lane if possible because you are truly a blessing in the areas of your own giftedness. I’m going to be honest and transparent here: I am not a cook so I shy away from offering to bring meals. The first time I allowed peer pressure to guilt me into cooking for others, I ended up in tears by the time I delivered the meal. I am much better at listening and counseling others or encouraging them to pursue God in their everyday lives. It is something I do for hours every week. Sometimes I counsel people for hours in one day, but it doesn’t seem like work because God has given me those strengths and the desire to help others in their pursuit of God.

Hopefully, I have encouraged you to stop hiding and to seek what God is wanting you to do this year. When you are listening to God’s urging and using your talents and gifts for the benefit of others, the rewards will be great for all people involved….including you!