How God is moving me to trust Him with this magazine, His magazine
When God told me to start an online publication, I pumped my fist in the air. I accepted a 4th-grade teaching position at the beginning of the school year, and I love it, but I still have a passion for writing.
I get excited about sharing the Gospel across the internet.
And that’s what this magazine is all about. For a while, though, I have struggled to let God lead the way for RELOCATE.
I get hot-headed.
“You came to the right place God,” I think to myself. “I can handle this; I know what I’m doing.”
Wrong.
God didn’t come to me for help with this magazine, His magazine, and I’ve learned a few things in the process of taking part in His publication.
Experiences are a blessing
Part of my problem is the belief that my skills carried me to where I am and put me in a position to create an online magazine.
I interned for the Baptist Standard and the Baptist General Convention of Texas the summer before my senior year of college.
Right out of college, the Lord provided me with a job as coeditor of a rapidly-growing high school sports website, TexasHSFootball.com.
While there, I was afforded the chance to contribute to USA TODAY’s high school sports website.
From there, I served the Temple Daily Telegram as a feature writer.
I have a hard time keeping centered on the truth: those experiences are God-given blessings and have nothing to do my successes as a writer or editor.
In fact, my skills are talents divvied to me by the grace of the Holy Spirit. My gifts are to be used to praise God and advance His Kingdom.
I’m extremely fortunate. God’s been good to me.
Vicky Kendig, my college journalism professor, went above and beyond to provide me—and all of her students—with unique opportunities to learn the craft.
While at TexasHSFootball.com, Ronald Oswalt—the renovated site’s brainchild, and its previous owner and associate publisher—gave me the trust and responsibility to grow and excel in my role.
I was able to work one-on-one with a prolific writer, editor and teacher in Annette Nevins at the Temple Daily Telegram, where she served as Lifestyles Editor.
She’s written for a ton of top-notch publications including the Dallas Morning News, the Austin-American Statesman, D Magazine and teaches journalism at the University of North Texas.
I have a mom who has sacrificially given up her time to give my stories a second look and help me edit. Even today, she still continues to polish my stories. Margaret Agnew now serves as RELOCATE’s assistant editor.
So no, I’m not a one-person show. Anything I’ve learned, every blessing I’ve been given, is to be used for God’s glory.
I can’t do this alone
RELOCATE started mid-January. Since then, our site’s visitors spent almost 2,800 minutes reading our stories.
The site’s success out of the gate can be credited to a number of people who have prayed for RELOCATE, who have shared the site on social media, and who have contributed stories and joined our team.
Others have pitched ideas, written comments and provided wisdom.
This is just the beginning. More people continue to ask about the site and graciously offer to help in any way they can.
When the site first launched, producing consistent content was my biggest fear.
I was draining myself, and my marriage, by coming home from work, immediately logging onto the site and working until bedtime.
God has reminded me that He can handle this site.
RELOCATE doesn’t have to fit a certain model or run like any other site. Sure, it’d be nice if it did, but with God in control, the site will do vastly more than I can imagine.
God is the ultimate founder, editor and author
God set everything into motion.
The Lord majestically polished the mountains. He created the seas’ flow.
God wrote everything, from beginning ’til everlasting, into existence.
When I think about RELOCATE in those terms, there is no way the site can fail.
I obsess about silly things:
“Would the site be more successful on another platform? Could we get more traffic if our name—and domain—was an adjective and not a verb?”
God will make RELOCATE successful.
When I don’t let go of the site’s operations, Satan will try to ruin me in the processes.
But I rest easy, knowing that “He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world.”
There’s peace in knowing that RELOCATE is in the hands of the universe’s founder, the indisputable editor of creation and the author of life.
