Multiply my faith.

Many of you have heard my story, but I felt it was important to tell it again to see God's hand in my life over the past 6 years.

When I started attending UNC Chapel Hill in the Fall of '09, I wanted to be an Actuary. That quickly came to an end after my first Stat class. So instead, I pursued accounting. Through what I thought was merely happenstance, I landed a tax internship at PwC the summer after my Sophomore year. It was that same summer that Matt and I got engaged, which meant I needed a full time job the following year to put Matt through his last year of school {I graduated 1 year early}. So I reached out to every public accounting firm in the area in hopes of obtaining a year-long internship.

BDO called me shortly after I started my search and offered me a year-long audit internship, exactly what I was praying for. I was able to support Matt and myself our first year of marriage and accepted an offer to come back to work for BDO after I finished my Master's program. But at the end of my internship with BDO, I felt a sense of restlessness. I felt a desire to leverage my skills in a ministry setting, whatever that may look like. It was then that I first reached out to Summit after seeing an accounting position open on their website. The position ended up already being filled and I moved on trusting God had me where He wanted me.

I finished my Master's program in May 2014, completed the CPA exam, and started back at BDO. I was so excited to see how God was going to use me for kingdom-impact and learned a ton about what that means. I think it's easy for believers to think "big" when they think "kingdom-impact." But sometimes God works in the quietest ways. And oftentimes God works in a way that doesn't make sense to us. His timing is typically far different than our timing. And His plans are often way different than ours.

I felt like I was working hard and working well at BDO. I was growing immensely, working to the best of my abilities, and pursuing a career at BDO. I loved my co-workers and desired for them to know the love of Jesus as I do. I felt purposeful at BDO and felt like the Lord had me in this firm for a reason, if only that reason was to work well and love others well. But the more and more I progressed, the harder it was to stay focused on the reason I was there.

In March 2015 my good friend and mentor reached out to me about a Summit accounting position. I immediately put it out of my mind as I was happy and excited about my future at BDO. Yet then again, a different friend in June mentioned the job to me...and kept mentioning the job to me until, in August, I finally reached out thinking, "this can't hurt anything." Little did I know, that God was using these friends of mine "for such a time as this." (Esther 4:14).

These next few months were filled with emotions and stress trying to "figure out God's will." I went back and forth, seeing God's fruit at BDO, yet seeing potential for fruit at Summit. I would get excited about the opportunity to leverage my skills more tangibly for the Kingdom. Then I would get scared about losing opportunity for career, for status, and for my future. I sought so much wise counsel, talked to co-workers, friends, and family. No matter what anyone said, I couldn't decide. I finally felt that God was leading me to accept the offer at Summit. Yet, even still, I wasn't sure. I was literally despairing over the idea of losing out on what my future would be like if I stayed at BDO. And it was then that God showed me how much I was idolizing career, status, money, and approval of man.

The minute I recognized that my career at BDO was me-focused was the minute God tore it away from me. You see, God isn't looking to make us comfortable, or even happy in life. He's looking to make us more like Him. And the moment we start to put our hope and our future in things of this world - things that will pass away - is the moment we lose sight of eternity. We get lost in the things of this world. We're far too easily satisfied with money, power, acceptance, etc. {the list goes on and on}, that we miss out on something greater, something lasting.

I didn't realize that I was placing my hope and future in BDO until that was threatened. I thought that I was willing to go wherever God was leading me, but when it came down to it, I wasn't. I wanted to stay at BDO, but it wasn't for God's glory, it was for my own.

Summit is going through a new series, "Multiply," where we're asking God to multiply our talents and our lives for Him. I had no idea that for me that would mean changing my career. God was asking {and is always asking} me to multiply my faith. "Trust me. Follow me. Have faith in me to do greater things in you." I didn't trust Him. I trusted me. I trusted my plan. I could have had a long and great career at BDO. But I would have had misguided efforts. I would have been building my own kingdom instead of His.

So, I surrendered this decision to God, and fully committed to working at The Summit Church. I started this past Monday and have felt so at peace about this decision. I will definitely miss BDO. It was the best job, with the best people, and the best boss. I'm so thankful for the experience I had there, and so thankful for the people who believed in me and saw my potential there. I will forever be grateful for the time, money, and teaching that was invested in me to grow at BDO.

Please pray with me that God would continue to multiply my faith and grow His Kingdom deep and wide. Please pray that God uses me well at Summit, not for my own gain, but to make His name great.

Romans 12:1-2 "...present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

"Faith, you see, works like a muscle. You can only strengthen it by straining it. When you work and strain a muscle, you produce thousands of little tiny tears in it, and then it grows back stronger." - JD Greear 

"That’s what God does to your faith. He’ll push it to the brink. Only then will it multiply in you." - JD Greear

Esther 4:14b "And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”