A year ago I stood on the edge of a giant cliff. And jumped.
No regrets. No turning back. Hit the play button on Tom Petty’s Free Falling.
My jump involved leaving a life of the bi-weekly paychecks behind and launching McLane Creative & The Youth Cartel. It wasn’t a faith step in that resolution or self-correction kind of way. It was a big old leap of faith with no parachute and carrying along a wife & 3 kids.
But I’m not alone. I actually have a front row seat to a few friends who are taking similar leaps. It’s exciting and important for the Kingdom that faithful people line-up in faith and jump.
Here’s a few of them whom I want to affirm today.
I see you:
- Marnie Nair & City Heights Prep – Our community has a significant problem that Marnie is setting out to address. City Heights, the San Diego community we live in, exports most of its teenagers every day for school. This communicates a powerful message that in order to be successful you need to leave City Heights. City Heights Prep is a brand new college prep middle/high school launching this Fall. I’m pretty pumped about it.
- Jeremy Lee, Parentministry.net, Parentzilla.com, and UthMin.net – Jeremy is a life-long youth worker working on a big dream. He’s made a huge investment in developing unique and useful content for parents and youth workers. I’ve walked with Jeremy through the web development end of this project and gotten the chance to see all of the premium content. Gosh, it’s really good stuff. In a world of free he’s gambled that you’ll be willing to pay for the best stuff and the community that forms around it. I like it, this is actually where most internet stuff is headed.
- Phil Cunningham & Steps of Justice – How many people do you know that put their family in an RV to go on tour for a year. I know one and his name is Phil. It’s one thing to say you care about social justice and praying for change. But to walk away from everything you’ve known, sell it all, and go on tour to raise awareness? That’s not a step of faith, it’s holding your breath and jumping.
- Ryan McRae & Geek in Afghanistan – Earlier this year Ryan, approaching 40, decided he needed to take a step of faith. So he quit his job at a university and moved to Afghanistan to take a defense contractor job. We’re not talking about locked away in a cushy base in Dubai. We’re talking about going to places where things blow up and people are killed every day. He’s blogging his journey and using the experience to reboot into his next stage of life. Totally love it.
- The Summit – OK, so this one is tied to me. But for Marko and I it’s a big huge leap for our little, bitty company. We couldn’t be more excited about how the program is developing, how partnerships are forming, and all that stuff. At the same time, we’ve got no guarantees that it’ll work. (The biggest thing you can do to support this effort is to buy a ticket. Heck, gift a ticket to a youth worker who needs to be there if you can’t come!)
What about you? How can you affirm people in your life taking big leaps of faith?
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