Steps of Faith: Amanda

I'm excited to begin a new series on the blog - Steps of Faith. I have invited friends to share small (or big) areas of life that have required faith. This might be more for me than the readers. I want to know how my friends are stepping in faith and be encouraged by it! The following is one of my favorite quotes by Amy Carmichael: All along the way, we are not asked to understand but simply to obey. Unfortunately I haven't read much more of her writings, but this is such a powerful exhortation about walking in faith. We won't always understand, but we should always obey. Those are real steps of faith.

First up? Amanda! She always does like a challenge. Amanda doesn't need much of an introduction. If you've been reading for even a second, you know who she is - though she has been absent from life on a regular basis for almost 3 months!! Crazy!

Here's her story:

Faith is a difficult thing for me to grasp. My mind is logical, black and white, truth and lies and little gray area. Walking by faith isn't something that I do well. Recently I decided to leave Raleigh and move back to my hometown of Statesville. I had no idea what was ahead aside from I was confident that this was the Lord's next step for my life. For a long time I thought this was such a stupid decision. I had no job, no friends, and was moving back in with my parents. I was super ashamed of that at first. God was gracious to me in allowing my being ashamed to quickly flee. I figured that it's not like I was moving home because I was unable to do life on my own, or because I had some addiction I couldn't shake. Because I have great parents, I knew this would be a season of living with them again that I would not regret. I did not have a job lined up and had just planned to go part time with my company and hoped  I'd find another job soon. I didn't know what life would look like and after 3 months now I still don't really. What I do know is that God has shown me so much of who he is as my provider. For work I started to float to different offices that needed help and just figured it would be part time work. It's not been part time, I've been able to remain full time with my company and keep all my benefits. Faith has never come easy to me. Within the logic and reason of my mind faith has little space to grow.

A friend recently asked me "How would you title this season of your life?" My response was waiting. I wish I understood the purpose in the waiting but for now I'm just waiting day by day. I'm learning to take the Lord's hand for each day and not jump 5 years down the road when today is my portion. I'm learning to trust in his word understanding that my reason it flawed.

"By Faith... " Hebrews 11:2a