The List

Yesterday as I was packing for the move I came across a list of "pros and cons" that my husband and I made on the return flight from our first trip to France. Way back in December of 2010, we were invited by ReachGlobal to explore an opportunity to provide leadership to the International Christian Community of Lyon. We departed for this trip with very little information about the role, the city, and the church community. But we went nevertheless with open minds, wondering if this might be what God had in store for our future.

The vision trip went extremely well! After 10 glorious days in Lyon, we boarded the plane bound for home with excitement, willing to keep the door open for more prayer and exploration. At the same time, we were a bit terrified. What would such a drastic lifestyle change mean for our family? These mixed emotions led to the creation of The List.

Making a pro/con list might not seem like a "spiritual" thing to do. I mean, if God asks you to follow Him, you go, right? That's obedience! But often it's not initially clear whether or not God is driving the decision. In those cases, I've found that making a pro/con list can be an excellent tool to use to weigh a major decision. You see, God does give us minds and expects us to use them! We pray for His wisdom, but we also pray for our own discernment as we make decisions. Most choices we face are not spelled out in scripture as having One Right Answer. (Of course, if a decision is sinful, causing us to disobey God's specific commandments, the answer is always NO!)


Here are several ways that our list proved helpful to us:

• Transparency. Since my husband and I both contributed to the list, we were able to communicate openly with each other about our true feelings, both positive and negative.

• Objectivity. Creating the list caused us to step back from the emotional high of the trip and jot down facts.

• Fears were exposed. As I read back over the list of cons, I quickly realized that most of the negatives involved "what ifs." What if we uprooted everything and then hated it? What if it wasn't safe for our daughters? What if we got hurt or depressed? What if we failed? Our con list revealed a lack of trust in God to meet our needs. Seeing our fears spelled out in black and white reminded us of the importance of stepping out in faith, knowing that God is trustworthy.

• Eternal perspective. Our pro list was full of things that really matter in the long run. We'd be using our God-given gifts and talents. We would have the opportunity to meet people from around the world and share the love of Christ with them. Being part of an international church would give us a small taste of how heaven is portrayed in Revelations 7: people from every tongue, tribe, and nation worshiping God together.

• Prayer guide. Our list became a reminder of specific things to pray about as we went before the Lord to seek His guidance in this decision.

• Praise report. Now that I've rediscovered the list, it's been so much fun to look back and see what God has done since we made the list. He's taken care of many of the fears and challenges from our con list, and He's expanded the pro list beyond what we could have initially imagined. 

The last line on the pro side of our list reads: "We'll be 50 someday!" That line came from a challenge that a pastor made to my husband years ago, when he first felt the call to quit his sales career and go into ministry full time. That pastor looked my husband in the eye and soberly said, "Greg, you'll be 50 someday. Do you want to look back on your life at age 50 and regret not doing what God has called you to do?" That question puts everything into perspective.