Founded in Faith [By Jen]
When we started this journey ten years ago, it was just Craig and I. We had read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller and had been so inspired by the idea of living a good story. In the book, Donald Miller talks about how good stories require characters to go through hard things, to make sacrifices in order to solve a problem in the world and to give everything for it. Back then, we weren’t sure what that meant for us. We wondered if living a good story meant selling all of our possessions to live in a hut or dropping everything to work toward peace in the Middle East at a small school in Northern Galilee. But as we pressed into God’s call on our life together, we realized that this dream of starting a restoration ministry on a working ranch was where He was leading. We didn't even own a shovel, but we said yes.
When the Rockside story began, things came together quickly. We moved to the ranch just six months after we got married. The couple who sold us the land bent over backward to make a way for us to move in. Our realtor said it was the most unconventional real estate deal she’d ever seen. Every barrier seemed to fall by the wayside as we took a wild step of faith. Confirmation and provision and an overwhelming sense that we were stepping into what we were made to do fortified us in that season.
When we first stepped on to this land in 2011, we asked God to increase our faith to believe that the dreams he had put in our hearts for this place were possible. The years that followed did just that, but not through a magical cloud descending from heaven. God taught us about faith by giving us way more than we could handle, so that we had no choice but to trust Him with everything. Whether it was learning how to raise livestock, learning how to help hurting people, or trying to grow our family, almost all of the most valuable things we have learned on this journey of Rockside have come from the many opportunities to trust God in the midst of big struggles.
The Bible says that faith is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Living by faith means confidently pursuing God’s purposes regardless of the obstacles in your way. We started this place without a framework because we wanted to create something we hadn’t seen before. We wanted a healing environment, not an institution, more like a family. We wanted a place where we could invite people to experience the freedom-giving love of Jesus in a tangible way--not tucked away in a facility, but around our kitchen table.
As we pursued God’s better story for our life together, Craig and I were sown like tiny seeds into the future that He had for us. We were buried together out in the country, scooping pig manure and butchering chickens and welcoming strangers who needed a safe place to be. We were buried together in this spacious place that God was preparing for each heart that would come to hear words of hope and salvation. And just as a seed has to die before it can bear fruit, we were given to death again and again so that we could bear the fruit of faith. We had to learn that faith is the foundation of the better story that God wants to write for our lives because faith gives us permission to hope that the best is yet to come and the courage to keep saying yes.
The eyes of faith believe that God is at work, even when the present circumstances look bleak. The feet of faith step out, even when the path is unclear. The heart of faith proclaims hope and peace, even when the way looks frightening. Faith is the currency with which we purchase our destiny, and faith is the foundation of the better story that God has for our lives.
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5
