Have you ever quit your job, given up everything and moved across the country?

…and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit.

The past year has been – in some ways – one of the hardest in my life. In many ways – perhaps the more important and longer lasting it has been one of the best.

A little over a year ago I was working a dead-end job (no offense to anyone working there who may read this – it was unfulfilling to me, and not a line of work I enjoyed or had any desire to move up in). From the time I was first saved, I have had the compulsion to minister the Gospel; the sole ministry outlet I had at the time was writing (on this blog – and my couple of books). Then I discovered that my working where I was was even taking from me my time to write.

There were other things going on, but on all sides: closed doors.

All I could see before me was the long dark tunnel of this dead-end job, constantly making barely enough money to get by with no reprieve to be found. It was possible – for the same has been the case with others – that I could be trapped there for the rest of my life (or so it seemed). I became depressed to the point of despair which was neither good for me, nor my family, or anyone really.

I could not believe that remaining in the situation was God’s will for me. I had to take a step of faith – which is exactly what I did.

I quit the job and started working full time from home on a space opera radio (in fact if you’re interested you can find the first episode here: https://youtu.be/n9a386Yf0d4); but then, I’ve never been fantastic at personal marketing and all of my content (from my books to Galacticus-man) has been completely produced by myself with no team collaborators or assistants.

The plan was to make an episode a week like the old radio shows from the 30s – but I was writing, performing, recording and producing alone and had not yet established an audience.

So after producing 6 episodes, I set myself to learning animation – still with no money coming in – did I mention I have a wife and four kids?

Right about the time that I was going to have to go back to work or be unable to pay rent, an opportunity opened up to move to Alabama (from Washington state, where we were). I had taken one step of faith, and once that step became exhausted, another opened up.

We held a garage sale to attempt to sell essentially everything we owned, and drove with what could fit in our van and a 8×10′ box across the country.

I’ve never had the money to take a vacation, and the road trip down to Alabama I will always remember as one of the best times of my life. The kids were great hour after hour in the car – we camped (until we discovered we were essentially following a storm most of the way down), and used some of the money we made selling pretty much everything we owned to make some enjoyable stops. All the time with my wife and kids was fantastic.

When we landed here, the top priority was to get a job, and I’ll spare you the stressful details – inasmuch as the trip down was one of the best times in my life, some of the time shortly after arriving in Alabama was the hardest. With four children, the youngest of them three we were shortly to be homeless and living in a van without even family near by.

I remind you I was coming out of a work situation where I had become depressed to the point of despair, and where I was confident, I was moving in faith, and stepping out in the direction I believed the Lord was leading every step of the way, the level of stress I had for a few weeks was almost beyond the imagination.

Then it hit – time was up, and the place we were staying closed. We were homeless.

Interestingly, the first night we were to stay in a hotel – which we could not afford for long as the final pennies in our account were few – I had another job interview. I had had several, and considering I was still jobless, you can discern how my job interviews had been going.

I almost couldn’t dare to hope they would hire me… and even if they did, how long would it be before I could start? How long before my first paycheck? I couldn’t stop thinking about living in the van with my three-year-old daughter, and all the others depending on a dead-beat dad.

But God wouldn’t abandon us, this one kernel of faith remained. Surely God would somehow do something with this.

Turns out, it was not an interview at all – the temp agency was bringing me in to complete the onboarding process. The phone interview I’d had WAS the interview. It was a shoe-in. I’d talked with a temp agency who was desperately scrambling to fill vacancies. Plus, they paid weekly which was direly needed as we were now living in a cheap hotel.

Praise the Lord, we lived in the hotel for only a week before we were able to get into a rental home – which is AWESOME.

Now I am a senator. Nah, just kidding, but after three months of driving forklift from 6 at night to 6 in the morning – the job I was hired for – I found a writing and video editing job for a Christian small business in the same town.

I suppose I am waxing a bit long, but the point is: God is faithful. I was depressed, and in despair because I was in a position where I felt I could bear no fruit for the Kingdom.

…and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit.

Have you considered that thought: He ‘PURGES’ to purge means you cut it down to nothing. A purging isn’t a pruning that takes off a couple of leaves or buds; a purging is a complete clipping down to the bare stem.

I don’t know what this season will bring – but I have absolutely no doubt of the season I was in, and the season I went through, I therefore have no doubt that what comes now is a season of bearing fruitfulness.

If you are desperate to bear fruit, you may get purged. But whatever season you are in, are you taking steps in faith?