Ever had one of those crazy ideas from God you can’t wrap your mind around?

I lived at home for 4 years after I graduated from high school, helping at home, cleaning houses for a living, and writing constantly.

One fall a homeschool support group asked me to guest teach in their creative writing class. A grammar nerd, I worked with the students on self-editing their work. I loved it. The thought came to me, “You should go back to school to teach English.” But I quickly dismissed it.

Two weeks later a friend asked me, “Have you ever thought of going back to school for your writing?” “Wow, um, yeah, like two weeks ago.”

I tentatively looked up Emmaus Bible College online, the one Bible school I was familiar with and discovered they had a two-year Teaching English to Speaker of Other Languages (TESOL) program. An Associate’s Degree in Bible would give me time to get that certification.

But I had no money, and no desire to strap myself down with student loans. God wouldn’t stop pricking my heart, though. I kept praying, visited the college, and applied. Every door swung open. I found financial aid everywhere I looked.

Even though God’s hand seemed to be moving me, stepping out in the dark scared me. I’d be moving 12 hours away from everything I knew. I’d never actually been to school (home schooled all my life). No one else in my mom’s family had a college degree (at that time).

Then God opened up Isaiah 45:2-3 to me,

Thus says the Lord to His anointed…
I will go before you
And make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I, the Lord,
Who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.

Yes. God would be with me. Even though I didn’t know where he was leading me, he did. His word brought me the strength I needed to make the step out of my comfort zone. I grasped that promise with both hands and held on tight.

That was 7 years ago, and he’s been true to his word. He really has made crooked paths straight before me and I have discovered treasures in the darkness. He is faithful.

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