Cliff Jumpers

Through obedience I have seen my entire family come to the most beautiful season of life I never could have dreamed possible. The faith an obedience of my parents when they were young and raising tiny children has turned into one of the closest, God-centered families that only He could have created! When a family chooses to sit around the dining table for hours discussing the bible, dreams of ministry, challenging, asking, and taking note of memorable scriptures for each other, it is unbelievable! It has really brought me into a new understanding of what the family of God should look like (not that we are it, but that as a church body we are called to be in similar communion!) With grace and joy this brings me often to tears, I remember being an on fire teen beginning missions when i was only 14 when my brothers had other interests. I dealt with fears and heartache knowing no one understood me and I mostly frustrated them. I had my own season of walking away, but upon returning I spent a year concealed away spending my days ruminating on the Lord and His mighty power. After that year I married and went home and I truly believe the reason for those five years home was to reunite a passionate effective family and in that loving environment teach us our spiritual gifts and allow us to learn from each other and from Him. It was such a beautiful season and so much fruit has come from those little seeds we planted and worked the ground, fed that wonderful soil and here we are today! The Lord has begun to now spread us out, more mature in our love for Him and our knowledge of His great plan we have been tossed to the four winds to become leaders, givers, goers, motivators, writers, senders, lovers of His word. What a blessing to be called a BALES/MILLER!
Dad and I were texting tonight and it just inspired this expression of the theme of our season of life: we are cliff jumpers! I've reviewed many times lately that the lesson the Lord has really had me focused on has been His overwhelming grace and what that really did for me.
Bryce and I, well we've always lived out lives as cliff jumpers. No one seems to understand us, but luckily our families have become used to this about us! The Lord has never directed our path in a way that makes sense to anyone and we have learned to be okay with that adversity. When I was 14 the Lord told me to go to Jamaica on a mission trip, I had no money or a job- but somehow i raised the money. When i decided to leave college, had excellent grades and a personal recommendation of a PHD to continue studies in Psychology to pursue counseling children. The Lord told me to leave and move to Texas, which also cost a lot of money. During that year He also told me to go to Africa, the most expensive of the trips, while also paying to attend the Academy. He came through every time! During my time at the HA I became best friends with Bryce, and upon graduation we began pursuing what the Lord had clearly communicated to both of us to be married that next summer. When we got married Bryce had the promise of a job, but we had no jobs or income and had just moved! Imagine how that felt for my dad.... But we had faith! We knew that the Lord directed us in a way that never seemed to make any SENSE to anyone that didn't understand our faith and our calling. There have been many many times of this- most recently calling us to pack up and move across the Country when we made awesome income, to pursue a dream of something more- a dream of residual income, to be able to be the senders we have known He has been preparing us to be for our whole lives! Every account of faith, every agonizing event of our marriage (not the marriage, but health struggles and such) have brought us to where we are to understand where we are going. He wanted us to learn steps of faith in small amounts, then larger and now we know we can do anything He calls us to! His mercies have carried us each and every day and it only gets better each day.
The Lord tells us to jump, and now it seems our will fights only a small amount before we strap in and say AWESOME LETS DO IT!
Each member of my family is in the exact same spot in their life, knowing they're called to jump and getting ready to leap off that cliff. Today I told dad we were mid-air waiting and would see them on the way. What a GIFT! It really hit me, and people I'm really not talking about my own family here, I'm talking about YOU, about us! We have the ability to JUMP when He tells us, He has prepped us, we knew it had been coming, it is terrifying! He never said it wouldn't hurt, or it wouldn't cause anxiety, or that it would be comfortable! He just said JUMP and I WILL CATCH YOU! He does not fail! Here's what I say to you, if it is difficult to look to Him and feel comfort, look around you, WE ARE MIDAIR! We are HERE, when you jump you are not alone, we are there with you! You know who were cliff jumpers? The disciples! The people Jesus called His friends, those willing to die for Him, those imprisoned in other countries for His name, He tells each of us when it is time to jump and our job is to trust that He has an incredible reason. Guys we were not created for THIS world! We have so much fear and worry about today, about tomorrow, about money, and yet none of those things will carry into the life we were actually created for- HEAVEN! Don't get so caught up in regular routine life that you miss your chance to jump and feel the rush of adrenaline when it is ALL up to Him to carry you through it!!! Look around when you're there, you are not alone, we are right here soaring through the air struggling with those same anxieties, but we KNOW from experience what seasons wait on the other side of that scary jump, the Lord wants to send you on to His incredible plan and purpose for your life but He cannot do it if you will not first JUMP!