Uncommon Inspiration

It's New Years Day. A fresh start and a blank page. Last year at this time, I was unemployed (intentionally) for about a week before launching into a new journey that has blessed me beyond what I could ever ask or imagine. I had chosen to step off the career ladder to pursue a combination of opportunities that provided me with more free time, more family time, more sanity and more options for my future. It would also mean less income, less prestige, less opportunity for professional accomplishment. I knew the "more" outweighed the "less" and the past year has proven me right. But not everyone has the same experience. There is risk in choosing less and yet I have spent the year watching amazing women around me make intentional choices of less in a world that craves more.

I think of one friend, who took specific steps this year to open up her life even more deeply to a ministry that is using her gifts in new ways and stretching her in very uncomfortable ways as well. This meant less free time of her own. Less disposable income. Less time with friends and family. It meant saying no to other ministries and opportunities she is also well suited for.

I think of another took a leap of faith into less income and less job security and less access to family and friends, because they heard God's call in their lives for a new adventure. It has cost them income, security, comfort, and control. It's cost them in tears and loneliness and uncertainty.

I think of a sweet girl, who has been called into a new adventure in grad school, but very intentionally set limits on her time. In a world of competitive performance and pressure to be what everyone expects you to be, she knew that the Lord was calling her to a different life balance. One that meant she would be saying no to people and activities. No to obsessing over courses and curriculum. No to opportunities that seemed profitable but would stretch her too thin. No to potential income using her gifts in freelance work that was competing for time with everything else in her life.

I think of a dear heart sister, who left a position of respect and prestige and a much higher income, to move to the background and uproot her entire professional trajectory for the sake of better work life balance and more time with her kids. Job opportunity after job opportunity that would mean a better title and more money came her way before she stepped down, and voluntarily took on less, to be there more for her kids and husband.

I think of one of my closest friends who after years of being rooted in a small christian school, where she was also connected to many of her personal friends and family, chose to be less involved and move into a new opportunity to connect with her son's new school. She had to say no to committees and service opportunities and activities that she had said yes to for almost a decade to open the door to the unknown in a huge, impersonal community of strangers.

I think of a truly joy-filled woman who put limits on her work, her hobbies and her time with friends to invest in her marriage and family. While others wanted her to enter into what could have been virtually every weekend filled with fun activities, she chose to do less and limit her schedule to support her husband as he finished grad school.

I think of an amazing woman who spent much of the spring sacrificially serving her mother-in-law who was stricken with cancer. She fully entered into serving one person, stepping away from the multitude of places she had served and connected with in her community. She said no to countless invitations with friends and community events to sit at the bedside of a woman walking through her last days.

Each of these women experienced the cost of less. They disappointed friends. They missed out of fun times. They said no to people they loved and to things they would have loved to do. They limited their earning power and reduced their prestige.

The world tries to sell us on the concept of more. Bigger. Extra. Commercials tell you to buy the luxury "you deserve" and to get more because "you're worth it". Indulgence is elevated as the mark of a truly fulfilled life and the media tries to convince us that we can indeed have it all. But these women intentionally walked against the flow and followed a different calling. These women counted the cost and poured themselves out, instead of looking to receive. These women limited their own happiness and opportunities out of love for others and in obedience to their Lord. They chose less.

Today, as I evaluate the past year and wonder about the year to come, I count myself exceedingly blessed to have the example of these amazing women in my life. I am inspired by their courage to follow their path, so narrowly drawn out before them, often clouded with fog and contoured with windy bends that keep them from seeing where it will lead. They boldly chose to enter into the mystery of being blessed with less. May we all show such strength in the New Year.