Missions, video, and creativity on the web. We're a young couple learning how to serve God with our gifts.

The dangerous thing about making goal for your life is that sometimes it gets tested. Two layoffs in 6 months testifies to that.

Now that we’ve discussed why building an invincible foundation in our marriage is a goal, we need to tell you why one of our goals is to be financially unencumbered. We believe we should work towards being free from major financial commitments so we can pick up and go wherever God calls us.

He has made this easier for us in many more ways than expected. What we mean by this is that He has taken it out of our control. We have incurred new health bills, and we have had to get by on unemployment recently. This has made the goal seem distant, and yet it’s oddly taken the pressure off of us, because we are obviously incapable of taking care of these financial burdens on our own!

We can say this easily now, but this wasn’t always the case. When we were first married we were both fresh out of college and started our first real full-time jobs. It took a while to figure out what our budget was supposed to look like, and to give up the very tempting dream of eating out for lunch every day of the week. :)

Tim felt a strong desire to be a responsible adult who takes care of the financial burden. When it came down to it, he really loved working a regular job and getting fulfillment from being a web designer and developer. In fact, it’s an area where he was desperate to hold on to the responsibility because it gave him a sense of validation in life. When he was laid off in May from his first professional job of 5 years, it was a pretty devastating emotional blow.

He could no longer turn to the status of being an employed productive member of the workforce to keep his self-image intact. He felt a total lack of control over his future, something very new to him. There had always been a next step planned out and waiting just over horizon. He was sick of school from a young age and eagerly began working at age 14. After high-school it was time to go to college, with very little doubt in his mind about the necessity of that. He was employed almost continuously throughout college and was driven to finish college as quickly as possible.

After college it was time to immediately transition to the professional working world, a world that had seemed like the final payout after all those tortuous years of education. So, with a gap of about 5 days between graduation and the first day on the job, he continued chasing the feeling of value and worth that working brought. The layoff that came after five years as a professional was an opportunity to recalibrate life and figure out how God wanted him to look at his value and identity apart from his employment.

Becca felt called to quit her full-time job three years ago.  She was later called to give up most of her freelance work, and through circumstances, lost a lot of the rest of it.  This all felt a little crazy and a lot like rejection.  The last few years have been a dance with pride in the area of “accomplishment” with a grand pay out of…surrender.   She has wrestled a lot with feelings of uselessness and questioned a lot, but in the end wouldn’t change a thing.  She wants to do what God called her to do without feeling ashamed.

Learning to really trust God in this area, being unemployed during some of the most stressful and difficult times in our lives, has been challenging and encouraging. Seeing that He is really faithful to bring us through this and take care of our financial needs is astonishing. So it is with great hope that we look to God to carry this goal to completion.

Epilogue: After writing this post Tim started a new position as a contractor with a ministry, and just before writing this Becca got some very fulfilling freelance work for a different ministry.