Trailblazin Ministries Blog

LaRosa

Romans 6 Resolutions (2007 Reflections)

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Monday, 10 December 2007
Filed under: LaRosa

It seems that towards the end of every year we find ourselves making resolutions for the coming year. I'm no different in that regard, I make my fair share of resolutions, many of which last no more than a couple weeks. Each year, I continually hope that I will do better in the coming year at keeping them, but I never do. This year, I'm hoping that this is true. 2007 has brought much change in my life, all for the positive, so I can't help but to hope for better things to come in 2008.

I had the intention to write something regarding my resolutions for 2008, but I think that can wait for another entry, as I want to spend the rest of this entry reflecting on what has transpired in 2007. There was much to be thankful for, and I want to take the time to share it with you. So, please, keep reading.

2007, admittedly, didn't start off too well for me. I wasn't in the least bit pleased with my job, and I didn't see any immediate hope of finding anything new. Robin and I knew that we needed to move because our job opportunities and hopes for advancement were slim to none living in Jacksonville, NC. There's not a whole lot you can do in a military town unless you're working for the government or a government contractor; outside of that, you're lucky to make a living wage (at least a living wage for someone with a wife & kids), which is sad. So, in the months leading up to 2007, I was hitting all of the job sites pretty hard applying to jobs and sending my resume out to a few places we knew we wanted to move. A change of scenery was inevitable, we both knew it. So, we looked at the following places: Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, and Nashville, TN.

After sending my resume to at least a hundred companies, I had only heard back from Dell, who was offering me a customer service position in their call support center. I gave it a good deal of thought because I had a good friend (Selina Evans) who lived in a Nashville suburb and it seemed to be a blossoming area, and not too terribly far from family. When I found out that they wanted me to drive out to Nashville on my own dime for an information session and an interview (with no guarantee of getting the job), I opted to decline; the main reason was because I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of being on the phone again for eight hours a day dealing with customers' problems. So, that put us back to square one in terms of a possible relocation and with no other prospects in the foreseeable future.

Now, things spiritually were changing too, while all of this was going on. For months I had started to feel uneasy about the church we were attending (Abundant Life Intl' Baptist Cathedral). At the time, I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, but I just felt completely uncomfortable there and felt that I needed a change of scenery from the church as well. So, sometime in late 2006 we had decided to visit another church that was less than 2 miles from our church; to be honest, it was refreshing, but the atmosphere and teaching was very similar. It was also around this same time that I also started becoming a fan of podcasting and asked some online buddies of mine which teaching podcasts they recommended. As a result, I ended up with these as my list: Way of the Master Radio, John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, and John Piper. I immediately noticed a drastic difference in the style and depth of teaching that was taking place.

So, to quickly wrap up the tail end of 2006, I decided that I was no longer going to be a member at that church because of the faulty teaching and drastic shift in theology that was taking place within me. For the first time, I felt like I was finally being fed the true Word of God. We had already stopped attending regularly, so it wasn't that big of a deal for us to completely stop going to the church. During that time, I fed heavily on the teachings that I was getting via those podcasts, while studying the Word on my own. I had purchased quite a few books by Piper, some others on Calvinism and covenant theology, a book by MacArthur called Charismatic Chaos which further cemented things for me, and ultimately my MacArthur Study Bible.

January 2007 was pretty uneventful and ho hum. But there was one event that would provide momentum for the rest of the year. Being a WORDsearch 7 user, I occasionally checked out their built-in discussion groups. Well, I was browsing through it one evening (January 8th to be exact) before starting my time of study for a new devotion when there was a topic that caught my attention. The topic was talking about how the company was looking for developers if any of the users lived in the area or knew anyone who lived in the area who might be interested. I decided to jokingly reply with the following, "hmmm... maybe i need to apply :) i'm both looking for a new job and change of scenery (currently live in NC)." Well, a little more than a week later (January 17th), they replied and told me to go ahead and email my resume, which I did that very night. At the time, I figured it would turn out like many of the other jobs I had applied to, and that it wouldn't be taken seriously, especially considering they were in Texas and I was over on the Atlantic coast. So, I continued the rest of the month pretty ho hum.

Well, it was in February that they contacted me and asked to do a phone interview. I took an early lunch that day, sat in my car and did the interview. They then emailed me a mini-test to work on and send back to them as soon as possible (since time was a part of the test). By that time, I had clocked back into work and was working hard to finish the test while answering support calls and designing templates for the company. Nevertheless, I got it back to them within an hour or so, I think. So, after that it was a little bit more hurry up and wait, while I waited for them to decide on things. Apparently I impressed them, but they still weren't too sure since it would be such a big move and not 100% sure I'd be a good fit for the company. With that in mind, they offered to fly me out for a few days so that I could visit Austin and they could see me work, plus make sure that I liked it. They offered to fly me out towards the end of February, but I couldn't wait that long (I was anxious about a new job, the possibility of moving, and didn't want to wait); so, I offered to pay for my own flight if I could come down that next week. They agreed and I flew out. The day I got there, I went to the office, introduced myself, then spent the rest of the day taking a look at possible houses for us to rent (thanks Stewart Parsons). My last day, I was offered the job and they asked when I could start. I told them March 5 (which only gave us like three weeks to relocate), and I flew back home with the good news. I gave my two week notice at work, and on Sunday, February 25th we were on our way to Austin, TX and arrived on February 27th, picking up the keys to our house the next day with all of our furniture ready to move in.

So, with the new job and change of scenery came the search for a new church home. But before all of that transpired. I had decided to make things official with my former church and cut ties. I wrote the pastor/bishop a letter of resignation in which I respectfully resigned my membership, while also airing a select few of my points of contention (click here to read). The reason for that was because where I was working, it was near impossible to schedule a time to meet with him, let alone having to schedule a meeting months in advance. I figured the letter would suffice. I have yet to this day to hear any response from him (not really surprised either). I won't get into how I found the church, because you can read about that here.

And since, life has really been in fast forward. I never would have believed that in that amount of time, as a result of finding a new job that I would have: found a church home that is focused on teaching the Word, moved halfway across the country, have a job that I love and where I feel at home, begun taking a course on systematic theology, preached my first sermon, seen my ministry grow by leaps and bounds (and get pruned), and so much more. With all that's happened, even within the past week, I can't help but to look forward to 2008 with a smile on my face, praising the Lord. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it exactly the same way because God is just too good!

But yeah, now that I've reflected, onto my resolutions for 2008...