Putting Down Some Roots

“When the root is strong, the fruit is sweet.”   - Bob Marley

It’s been a long time coming since Mark and I have been at the point of saying we’re (God-willing) putting down some roots. When this year started, we were nearly certain that we were leaving our home in Virginia for another destination.  The options varied from places we would like to live to places we’d really never wish to live.  However, we tried to keep an open mind and remember that geography doesn’t determine the people we’ll be.  That proved to be especially challenging when it seemed apparent that we were moving to Green Bay, Wisconsin. 

When this process started at the end of 2010, we thought making the move to college would be a fairly easy transition.  We thought that the experience at the pro level, and the experience playing professionally, would be good resume items.  Apparently, they're not.. :)  Mark was told from the start that it was a "good old boys" network - all about who you know, what alumni influence you have, which influential donors call on your behalf, etc. when you apply for an opening.  We found all those things to be true, but we also knew that if God willed us to be somewhere, His influence would be all that mattered.  That gave us a peace during the process. 

At one point in the spring, we thought we could be moving to Omaha.  Mark was offered a position as an asst. there, and he probably would have taken it, except for the fact that a school in NC that encompassed all of the things we hoped for, told him that he was at the top of the list for a job there.   Mark was granted some time from the Omaha school to make a decision, but then they turned around and offered the job to someone else without telling him they didn't want to wait anymore.  We took that to mean Omaha wasn’t the place for us.  Similar things happened during the past six months, and right when we were about to commit to an opportunity in Green Bay, the final terms of the offer were enough to make us see that we’d be compromising too much of what is important just to try to “make it work” when it was evident that wasn’t the place for us either.

The opportunity we most desired in North Carolina came so close to being fulfilled, but in the end, that didn’t either. 

The school in NC just three weeks ago called to say that Mark was very qualified, everyone had great things to say about him, he was their next choice, blah, blah, but the job was offered to someone else.  It was hard to get that news because that is really where we felt like we were meant to be. While this happened with the school in NC, Mark was approached about an opportunity to get into a completely new career path. It would be a business type opportunity in the area, and the guy he'd be working with is really willing to coach him along, mentor him, etc. as Mark's whole career has been soccer, and this is a completely new skill set. The timing was crucial because Mark probably wouldn't have seriously considered this opportunity at any other time in our process because we felt so led to college soccer, but since giving this opportunity a lot of prayer and thought, Mark feels really confident moving forward with it. 

It just all came down to the fact that he tried to do the college coaching thing for opportunities that came up over six months, and none of them worked out.  There were so many potential possibilities of things that almost worked out, but in the end, none of them did.  We just trust that the Lord meant that for a reason. It was like that dream had to totally die for the next new thing to come about. We get these little devotions called "Fresh Starts" every day from a pastor that Mark knows, and he sends out the Fresh Starts every morning to everyone on his distribution list.  Anyway, Friday's said this...

Sometimes you have to let go of a dream in order for something better to take its place.  But it isn’t easy.  After all, your dream is built on all your best hopes for the future.  Dreams are what make the present endurable, even enjoyable, as you look forward to a different tomorrow.  And when a dream dies, much of life seems to die with it.  But it doesn’t have to end there. 
Ask God to replace your dream with something better today.
Jesus put it this way, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone, but, if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).  He said this about His own death which was soon to take place.  In order for Him to make the most of the situation, He looked beyond the death of a dream to the better day which lay ahead.  He knew that Friday’s death would be followed by Sunday’s resurrection.  You can know that too, even though your dream may have died for now.  Something better is coming.

It was like the perfect description of what had happened with us.  So, we're good with it.  We're putting 100% of our efforts into starting a new path, and getting excited about the fact that we're staying put and feeling settled here finally.  I have no idea if it's a change for now and one day Mark will transition back to coaching, or if it will be a permanent change.  We're just going with whatever comes...

So, we’re finally putting down some roots and saying we’re, God-willing, going to stay awhile.  One thing I’m confident of after going through this process though is that roots can grow strong and the fruit can be sweet even if your physical home doesn’t have deep roots.  I really have come to appreciate the fact that stability comes from faith, and those roots can grow deep wherever you are.  Stability comes from committed family and friends who do life with you in meaningful ways, and even when we thought we’d be moving far away, we knew those relationships that had strong roots would still thrive over far distance.  But, for now, we’re actually getting excited about having some physical stability for our family also. 

Now, we’ve just got to come up with another excuse to tell Nina why now isn’t a good time for getting a dog.  For the past six months, we’ve told her that if we move, it wouldn’t be fair to get a dog now and put it through all the confusion of moving, etc.  Now that she knows we’re staying, she’s already mentioned that it means we’re ok to get a dog now…back to the drawing board of coming up with more excuses!