There is an exodus that has been happening throughout the last couple years. Perhaps you know of it. You may be on the leaving end, or the receiving end. Maybe you are one who has left, or one who has stayed.
Speaking personally, as a resident of the Pacific Northwest, we are from an area from which a lot of people are leaving. It has become so common in my circles to move that I have been asked multiple times if our family is moving, too. One reason I am writing this particular post is to state clearly our intent and our heart behind it. Spoiler alert: we are staying. Another reason I am writing is to encourage those who are staying to continue fighting the good fight and to endure hard times for the sake of God’s kingdom.
*Disclaimer to those of you who may not yet know this about me: I am a Christian, and this specific blog post is directed to other Christians. What I say may not make much sense to you, but I welcome you here and thank you for reading. Please continue reading if you’d like; “try on” what I am saying. My door is always open if you want to talk more about what I believe and why.
So we are staying. Objective #1 of this post is completed. Objective #2 is to answer why. Why stay? I can certainly relate to and understand many of our friends’ reasons for moving. The top three I’ve heard are as follows: Financial. Political. Family-related. The cost of living in Seattle is quite high. Many of the politics and handling of COVID oppose what our friends (and us at times) believe is right. They wish for a safer place to raise their children, one where most of the people around them value what they value. There are other reasons, but these are the most common ones I have heard. As I said, I can relate. It is getting harder to live here. The darkness seems like it’s pressing in and getting personal. It’s not “out there” anymore; it’s affecting our children, our neighborhood, our schools, our finances. Recently I got to travel to Portland and chat with many women from various churches in Oregon, and I heard much of the same. People have been feeling the shift, and some are choosing to leave.
So why stay? No, it’s not because of the scenery or weather, the restaurants or cultural opportunities. It’s not because we agree with all the laws, decisions, and values of our area. Yes, we’ve certainly been given the freedom and opportunity to move somewhere else, where the politics are more in line with our beliefs, where our children can have acreage to roam and play freely, where we get more bang for our buck than we do here. Why stay when it’s hard? Just like our friends who have a combination of reasons to move, we have a combination of reason we stay.
- We stay because it’s hard.
That may seem like a weird reason, or a sick one, where we stay because we enjoy difficulty and pain. No, we’re not as sadistic as that. We don’t like pain or challenge more than the average American, but God has grown us to understand that our character, our faith, our ability to endure and persevere, our love; in short, the fruits we want in our lives have been formed through difficulty. In Luke 9:23-24 (NLT), Jesus says this:
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”
There are many other examples in God’s word of this. The point is this: we Christians know that in order to follow Jesus, we must also take the path of suffering and rejection, even to the point of death. Our lives are not our own anymore. All the other things we wanted to pursue before Christ are now secondary, tertiary, or submitted to the will of God instead of our will. We must give up our own way. And when our hearts are overtaken with the beauty and majesty of our Savior, this is just what we want to do, with great joy. Specifically in our context, we’re not facing death for our beliefs in the US. However, if the people around us deride us, exclude us, judge us, or hate us for loving what God loves and hating what He hates, we are walking Jesus’ path after him and have eternal cause to rejoice. Yes, it’s hard to live here as a Christian, and the very fact that it is hard to live here due to our faith tells me we’re doing something right.
2. We stay because we are a minority.
As you will see, there are overlaps in our reasons. This reason is a continuation of Reason #1 above. Consider the context of the early Christian church after Jesus’ ascension, which is the context of Acts, the epistles, and even Revelation. The early Christians were quite a minority in their culture. Rome certainly did not govern solely by biblical principles. Churches were scattered (by persecution) throughout a world that believed in many gods; small pockets of believers within a society that didn’t understand them. Now consider God’s people in OT context. I know that’s quite a spread, but to throw some names out there to get you thinking: Noah, Abraham, the Israelites in Egypt, their receiving of the Promised Land during Joshua’s time, the Babylonian exile, the return to Jerusalem. Is there a time God’s people were the majority in their context?
While it is a good and holy ache to be with other believers, and a necessary part of walking in faith and building each other up, we are also not meant to all huddle together in the same place. At some point, we need to leave the huddle and get in the game. I’ve seen too many times this “huddling” has led not to mission but to judgment and a critical spirit, looking at the people who don’t live and think like they should, rather than being God’s instrument of change, love, mercy, grace and truth. We were meant to be sent out all over the world, to be Jesus’ witnesses, to be salt and light. The very fact that there are not many Christians here encourages us to dig in, be involved in our community, and be a channel of God’s presence & hope to a hurting, lost and blind world.
3. We stay because we feel the darkness increasing.
Sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? Even as I write it, I feel as if I’m painting a portrait of us living vicariously in a superhero story where we as Captain America and Thor are fighting Thanos in the dark, hopeless wreckage of the Avengers headquarters. No, the battle in which we are engaged is even more profound than Endgame. Our enemy is real, yes. He is Satan, the devil, and he is furious, knowing his time is short. His target is those who hold to the testimony of Jesus and keep his commandments (Rev. 12). Though he is furious and making war against the church, God also shows us in Revelation that the victory belongs to the slain and risen Lamb, Jesus Christ. He has defeated Satan already, and will finally and forever conquer him, sin and death at the end of the age. This is why we can endure the darkness, church! This is why we can continue holding fast to the testimony of Jesus and keep God’s words. Jesus is standing in the midst of his church (Rev. 1), and he is victorious! The darkness around is not in us! The Light has come (John 8:12). By his Spirit who lives in us, we are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14)! Just as I said earlier, it would make no sense for the light to huddle together in the same place like some sort of enormous power plant while the rest of the country (or the world) is in darkness. Of course it’s dark here! Before the Holy Spirit opened our eyes, we also walked in darkness. People around us need the light. We need to be a light in the darkness because Jesus has conquered and will conquer at the end, and we want to be found doing our Master’s work.
Another bonus to staying when it’s dark is that God’s glory, goodness, character, power and steadfast love tend to shine out through his people in times of struggle and darkness. Loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us requires being in relationship with our enemies and enduring persecution.
4. We stay because we’ve been given the financial ability to stay.
This is a practical reason, part of discerning God’s call to stay or move. Not everyone can live here. The housing market is pretty ridiculous here, as it is a lot of places. If you don’t make a certain amount, you won’t be able to live here. It’s a reality to consider. On the other hand, we’ve personally experienced and heard stories of God’s provision when income was dramatically below average for this area. For example: we were able to live in West Seattle, newly married, while my husband was a barista for Starbucks and I worked 4 hrs a week as a personal trainer. What we’ve learned is if God calls, He provides.
Another thing to consider is that even though we are financially viable with city living in the PNW, we could easily get more square footage and more perks of higher-class living if we moved elsewhere. I understand the draw; I spent some time on Redfin just yesterday to see the quality of living we would have in another state. It’s tempting to want to increase your standard of living. Yet for us, we get more excited about the opportunities to be generous and do ministry here than to get comfortable in a temporary stopping place just for the sake of status or ease. It’s not what we are called to pursue. It won’t make us happy. All these lesser comforts, fine in their place, are not worthy of our pursuit. Where our hearts are; our wallets follow. And we want to pursue first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
There are other reasons we stay, but these are four out of the five main reasons. A fifth one is so lengthy it needs its own blog post, but I’ll give you a preview: we believe this is a great place to raise our kids. (Did I just shock our whole homeschool community?!)
Obviously not everyone is moving. Many are planted and committed. I’ve met a few new arrivals who have moved here from California, Texas, and the Midwest. Throughout the last few years, I’ve panicked and repented and understood yet again that God loves this part of the world, as He loves every part of His world, and He is not abandoning us. He is continuing to make the name of Jesus known to all people, as we disciples of Jesus are faithful to proclaim it.
Church, if I could remind you of anything as I close this post, it is this:
God has chosen to do His work through His church. That means you and me. If we assume “someone else will do it”, we’re missing it. If we think someone else will love the struggling neighbor across the street, we’re missing it. If we think someone else is going to be the voice of reason at our child’s school, we’re missing it. As weak, flawed, sinful, and struggling as we are, we need to understand God knows our flaws, and has not recruited us because we’re so amazing. We’re not. He is. It’s His Spirit in us that will accomplish His work, if we would only walk with Him and submit to His leading in our lives.
You may be called to stay where you are. You may be sent elsewhere. If you are going, go with a heart for the lost. Go in good fellowship with the church in the place you are leaving, praying for them as they continue the work of the kingdom. Go in prayer for the people you are leaving and the people to which you are going. Go as God’s ambassador. Go not in search of comfort, but to follow Christ. Go with a heart of willingness to be wherever He calls you to be, however long He calls you to be there.
If you are staying, copy and paste the above, inserting the word “stay” where it says “go”.
This really is the best life of all. I hope and pray it’s yours.
Oh, and if anyone wants to move to the Seattle area to do God’s work here, please come 🙂 We have a place for you.
Abiding 