The Clear Path

A year ago, we walked the campus of John Carroll University for the first time and thought, "Well, here goes nothing!" We've truly felt that a lot in the last year and a half, as schools made decisions based on Carson's applications, determining the next place we would live, sealing our fate.

All along the way, though Carson sent applications far and wide, our prayer was "PLEASE MAKE THIS CLEAR!"

John Carroll was the last place we thought we'd go. Carson happened upon the school on the internet, having never heard about it. He got halfway through the application and forgot to fill out the rest. The only reason that he finished applying was because someone from the school called him.

But when decision letters had reached our inbox (I was incredibly disappointed to find out that they aren't all real letters - especially because application costs were not cheap), the options were limited. Carson hoped to attend a funded program because - let's be honest - money for school is not a small matter. And we are not wealthy people. Schools offered partial funding, unpaid assistant-ships, or no funding at all.

"That one school in Ohio"  interviewed Carson over the phone for a position in the Religious Studies department as a graduate assistant. He got a good feeling about the school from that conversation, and when they let him know that he would receive full funding and a small stipend, it didn't take long to say yes.

Though there were many, many little worries and decisions needing to be made (jobs! house! church!), we felt that relocating to Cleveland was a very clear choice, even if it was our original last choice.

As we made the drive from Spokane to Cleveland, I found myself thinking many, many times how great it would be to turn the car around and head back to our old life. I loved Spokane and if given the chance, I'd move back there. But the truth was that we prayed over and over again for God to make the next steps obvious. He didn't open up a position at Gonzaga University, a similar-to-JCU school four blocks from Moody's campus in Spokane. He led us to Ohio.

As we're praying about the next steps (the list for PhD applications is being finalized!), this feels especially relevant again. Does God know where we'll be in a year (crazy!) from now? He does. And it might be Ohio still or it might be on the far side of the moon or in a top-of-the-list school or at a school we still haven't heard of. We don't know, He does know and knowing that He will lead is especially comforting.