All In

Neale & friends in Chicago

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." Jer. 29:4-7


My husband and I had lived in SC for 40 years, and then almost out of the blue, God called us to Chicago.  When we moved there, I literally felt like I was going into exile.  During our stint, the verses above in Jeremiah jumped off the pages at me, I felt like God was saying - invest here, right where you are!  So we did, and 6.5 years later, he called us to Atlanta.

We moved from Chicago to Atlanta about 1.5 years ago.  When we were first interviewing here, we met with the Sr. Pastor, and I remember him saying how he always let his children go back and visit their friends as they moved from place to place.  For some reason, that just stayed in my head.

My daughter, Neale, has been begging me for months to take her back to see her friends. So after much hesitation, I booked the trip - 3 round trip airline tickets to Chicago - about $900.  I so hated to spend that much money, but I knew that I needed to honor our kids & their friends.  After all, we had moved them there and invested all of ourselves there for 6.5 years.  You know...bloom where you are planted.  And then we pulled them up by the roots again and moved them to Atlanta.

A few days after I booked the trip, we received a $1000 check - an unexpected gift.  Enough to cover the cost of the trip. I felt like God was affirming this trip for our family.

As we began to land in Chicago, my son, William, began to cry.  And then again, when we drove in our old neighborhood, tears again.   The move was extremely difficult for him.  And it was evident again how hard it really was even 1.5 years later.

Neale had decided to surprise her friends with her visit. We had conversations with all of her friends' parents to make sure everyone would be home. At the first house, she jumped out of a box. Literally.  Her friend screamed and seemed thrilled to see her.  The screaming continued as we went from house to house visiting old friends.  It was fun for me to see how glad they were to see her.

William also went from house to house.  Spending hours with each friend playing video games, hanging at the baseball field, spending the night, and eating pizza together.  Some moments were awkward, but most of the time, it was good, very good to reconnect. 

During the visit, I realized that the 6.5 years we spent there we were "all in."  As a Pastor's family, we never know what will be "next."  We had to choose to invest completely in where God planted us.  And because we decided to do that, we have friendships there that have eternal significance - to us and to them.

As we left Chicago, William had no tears.  I think he realized that we were "all in" while we were there, but now we must turn our attention to being "all in" here in Atlanta. Build homes and plan to stay. That is really what God calls each of us to do. Invest right where you are...where he has placed you....right now.

Questions to Ponder:

• Are you 'All In' where God has planted you?  If not, why?
• What steps could you take to be more invested and present to where you are right now?
• Ask God for his help to take those steps.