People I love make Decisions Hard

Right now I sit in a strange place.

I'm in the middle of making a major life decision. I told our people last night that if they would just abandon me I'd be fine... the decision would be easy. The problem is I know they won't.

Since January I've had the honor of studying scripture and doing life with the most genuine people I've been blessed to meet. Its one of the most pure Christian groups I have ever been around in my life. We've known each other longer but its been since January that we've dedicated ourselves to this without distraction of anything else. It's been phenomenal for all of us.

Here's why:

1. I can be myself- When I'm with our people I genuinely feel like I can just be me. There is absolutely no judgment.

2. We have open conversations- This group respects each other and we don't have any drama queens/kings who dominate conversation. We have had tears shed and tons of laughter.

3. We're friends 7 days a week- We've had a ton of activity together apart from Sunday and apart from a pre-ordained calendar. Just this week the conversation toward the end of the night was tossed out by a guy in our group... he said "Hey, lets get together for the 4th, what's everyone doing?" It's great when men and women enjoy each other enough to want that in their lives.

4. There is a sincere thirst for the gospel- We've been able to really dig into scripture. What I've enjoyed is that we have a group who really want to know God's desire and make proper changes to their life. We've had various moments where someone (after learning from scripture) would say "Well I guess I'm not being a good influence on my friends, I'll have to adjust."

5. We're different- Among our fold are military, computer programmer, law student, dog trainer, Administrative Assistant, Fitness director, etc. We have people from Idaho, Minnesota, Maryland, Tennessee, and many other states. Our financial situations are different and even where we'll be in 2-3 years is different. Our law student has ambitions for major elected office and our military family will undoubtedly have to take orders within the next two years. We all know that our life circumstances will pull us apart but it hasn't stopped anyone from giving their all and being transparent right now with the time we have.

So... as you may be able to tell, I love the people I'm doing life with. In making major decisions right now I can honestly tell you that they are one of the biggest reasons my decision making is so tough. Last night I told them so.

You know what's crazy? I've been able to be transparent with this entire group about the decision I have to make. Even though I know that my move affects them tremendously this group has been so positive that I've had the freedom to let them in on the process and ask for their prayers. If you're in ministry you know how absolutely rare that freedom is. Most of the time the Pastor has to get everything in order before mentioning a peep about the decisions he's faced with.

So anyway... I just figured I'd share with you why I love the people in my life so much. They are making it very hard on me but I love them for it. Feel free to join me in prayer about upcoming decisions. A few of my friends know what's on my mind. Nothing is in stone yet but I'm certainly praying for God's wisdom and direction.

Finally I encourage everyone reading this to find a group like mine. It's hard. It takes work. But it's absolutely worth it. If you can't find a group like this... start one. That's what we did. It rocks.