#DangerDays: Andrea Ward's Story Part 2

This is my friend Andrea Ward's second guest post in the #DangerDays series, and just like the first one, it's gonna blow you away! You can follow Andrea on Twitter @citrus_sunshine and visit her blog (which I HIGHLY recommend!) at http://jesusyoume.blogspot.com/. Now if I can just get her hubby Drew to write one as well. He knows all about danger and adversity. He's a New York Mets fan....

The Danger of Staying Home

I think most every Christian has faced the fear of being called to a strange foreign country as part of their service to God. That is dangerous service and those that go are the brave servants. My friend, who didn't speak Albanian, went to Albania for 2 years. A girl I grew up with went on a mission trip around the world and then settled in the Philippines. Those girls are living out a radical and dangerous faith. I'm certainly not included in that group. All I did was go to college, become a teacher, get married, and have two kids. There isn't any danger there. Or so I thought.

I wrote a post several weeks ago about my husband and I following God to a new church and to a new job for him. Based on that fact one would think I had redefined dangerous in my life. Unfortunately, my fickle heart and scattered brain have difficulty holding on to some concepts. So when I saw someone on Instagram taking about his family moving overseas, I thought about how he was really living out a dangerous faith. Then God derailed my train of thought. He emphasized the notion that staying home can be just dangerous.

How so?

It is no secret that we live in a country that prides itself and it's citizens on their ability to do it themselves. I see many people my age and older struggling to get to the next thing. Maybe that thing is a promotion or a bigger house or a nicer car or some other self imposed goal. So when I don't live that way or believe that way I stick out.

When you plant yourself in one place for a long time, you have the chance to see change become a new normal. And that new normal isn't just in my life.

I attend a Bible study that started in a tattoo studio ministering to addicts. Today it meets in the back room of a local restaurant and ministers to whoever walks through the doors. Through that Bible study I have connected with recovering addicts, the homeless, the elderly, some kids, and some 'normal' people. I have seen people get jobs, homes, and healing. I have seen some lose their way and find it back again.

Recently we saw a former youth of ours. This past Sunday he served as an usher. We have seen him grow from an angry surly teen into a young man going to NC State to be a veterinarian. He went from only being willing to run the projector at the back of the sanctuary to serving as an usher. He went from cursing God to having a faith strong enough to ask questions and watch for answers.

Now we are waiting on God to tell us what the next big thing is, and yes we have been told by multiple people it will be big. In the meantime, we are raising our two kids, enjoying family time and loving those around us.

Isn't it dangerous to stay when it gets hard because God told you to fight? Isn't it dangerous to walk away and wait for God to tell you what is next? Isn't it dangerous to stay in one place and keep reaching out? I think so and I think I will.