A few weeks ago, I took my kids to Magic Kingdom and, for the first time, explored Tom Sawyer’s Island with them. On the island, there’s a bridge made of barrels. As you walk across it, it’s hard to keep your balance. It feels unsteady as you bob up and down with each step. It feels uncertain, maybe even a bit scary, as you struggle to put one foot in front of the other.
That’s how 2020 feels right now. My word for the year is Better, and I thought I knew exactly what God was going to teach me when He showed me Ecclesiastes 3:9-13:
What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. (emphasis mine)
I was ready to do my job with joy, to do good, and take pleasure in the work God had given me to do. But that wasn’t what God had in store for my better.
As 2019 came to a close and we welcomed 2020, both my husband, Kris, and I felt a stirring – change was coming for our family. God reminded me that what He asks us to do is better.
I am resigning from my position as Women’s Ministry Director at my church.
This decision has not come easily, and I have grieved greatly. But I feel a call to be more present at home. My kids, now 10, 7, & 5, need their mama in a way they didn’t four years ago when God called me into this role. I have trusted them to His care as I did what seemed crazy: going back to work. But God has been so tender. He has carried us through some of the hardest years of my life and done a great work in my family.
And now, He has asked me to step down from my position, but not from ministry. You see, I realized that everything I love about ministry, everything He has gifted and called me to do – I don’t have to be on staff to do. While I am sad to see this chapter come to a close, I am excited and expectant of what is to come this year!
Rest assured: I plan to continue teaching, leading, and writing however God provides that opportunity. I am not the same woman I was four years ago. My heart for God, for His Word, and for women is not the same it was 4 years ago. The work God did in my heart is not in vain. I will not stop serving Him, being obedient to use the gifts He’s given me, and loving the women He puts in my path. Adore will continue! Our next one is scheduled for Thursday, April 23 and Stacey Thacker will be speaking.
But here’s my charge to you: as my friend told me last week, one monkey don’t stop no show. This ministry goes on because of YOU (or any ministry honestly – even if you aren’t a women at my church, the ministry at your church grows because of you). You are gifted women, called women, women racing after Jesus. You are women who love God, who love His Word, and who love each other.
God has given us a gift – a task to be busy with, one that points us to eternity. Last week at Adore, I went back to my first event as Women’s Ministry Director – one where I cast a vision for our ministry using this fountain from Disney Springs.
This is still the task before us: that we would look like this fountain, that we would remember that we are at all times both the older woman and the younger woman, that we always need to be poured into and we need to pour out. That is discipleship. That is the call of our life. And the result is like this fountain: a multiplying, a growth of the kingdom of God, with Christ, the Living Water, flowing through us all.
Whatever He has asked of you, whatever step of obedience you need to take, I pray you remember: What Jesus asks us to do is better.
Thursday night is one I will never forget, as women gathered around me, laid hands on me, and prayed for me. I cannot thank you enough for the love and support and encouragement y’all have given me. I love you!
At Tom Sawyer’s Island, I walked behind my 5-year old on that unsteady barrel bridge, watching him giggle as he was tossed to-and-fro. About three feet from the end of the bridge, he threw his arms out and on the top of his lungs for the entire island to hear, screamed, “I TRUST IN GOD!” as he lept those last three feet. As his feet hit the pavement, he looked back at the bridge, and with confidence said, “Yep. Totally trusted God.”
I do not know what God has in store for me or for you in 2020, but this I know: though my feet are unsteady, I am throwing my arms out and declaring, “I TRUST IN GOD!” And at the end of this year, it is my prayer that we look back and, with confidence, say, “Yep. Totally trusted God.”
Erin H. Warren 