253. Jump Ship: A Rock of Remembrance

Hey, friend.

I am so glad you're here today.

Close your eyes if you can, because I want to take you somewhere.

First, picture yourself on a beautiful ship.

Take a moment and really imagine it.

The grandeur of it.

The magnificence.

Maybe there are lounge chairs on the deck.

Maybe the sun is just coming up over the water.

Or maybe it's a quiet night and the stars are out.

This is your imagination, so make it yours.

Now imagine someone on that ship with you.

Maybe you're the captain, or maybe someone else is.

And in the stillness, you hear a voice.

A sweet, still, small voice.

And it's asking you one question.

Do you trust me?

Maybe it feels a little bit like that scene in Titanic.

Do you trust me?

And there's this wild, beckoning, rising up in your spirit for something more, something deeper, something beyond the comfort and the familiarity of this ship.

You know where this ship is headed.

You got on this one for a reason.

But something in your spirit says, jump ship.

And you feel it.

Courage and fear both rising up at the same time.

Both feel like an invitation.

And you look out past the edge of that deck at the wild, open ocean.

Encourage wins.

You start to run.

You run as fast as you can toward the edge, and you leap.

And there's that moment, suspended in midair, where you realize what you've done.

And then you hit the water and you begin to sink down and further down and even further down.

And maybe there's a slight panic, but there in the depth, you feel it.

You feel fully free, fully surrendered.

Peace wraps around you like living holy water.

And don't worry, because this is your imagination.

You can breathe down here.

What does that feel like for you right now?

Just sit with that for a moment.

Okay.

Welcome to Holistic Hearts.

I'm Kristen.

And today we're going to go deeper into what I've been calling our rocks of remembrance.

And if you haven't heard that episode yet, go back, give it a listen.

But today, I want to share one very specific rock of remembrance.

And if you could picture it with a word written on it in Sharpie, it would say, this jump ship.

This rock belongs to my husband and me and our family.

And we are fully living in a jump ship moment right now.

My husband recently resigned from a wonderful financial firm where he had been for nearly 10 years.

And he has made a huge, courageous move to a new firm, which just so happens to be where I've been working part time to help fill in the gaps during this transition.

And, yes, I became a receptionist, or as A fancy word that they call it now.

Client experience coordinator.

And it's honestly been so fun to be a part of this process.

I want to be real with you though.

This has been one of the hardest things that we've walked through in recent years and the weight of it was very real.

We weighed this decision for a long time.

But I also want to tell you that it's also been wildly freeing and absolutely wonderful because there is something about risk, that conscious, courageous spirit led risk that makes us come alive as humans.

And we have had multiple jump ship moments in our marriage.

And every single time God has blessed us with the courage to do so.

Now here's the thing about jumping ship and I say this super lovingly.

A half hearted jump will get you hurt.

Can you imagine half heartedly jumping off the edge of a ship?

That is not going to feel good.

Jump ship requires your absolute full commitment, full courage.

You're going, you have to leap far enough that you are fully gone from the, from the deck.

No clinging to the railing, no one foot on.

It's all about letting go.

And it's all about letting go of the familiar being okay with not knowing exactly where you're going to land in the water.

And for us it has looked like running off the deck hand in hand and splashing into the deep unknown and allowing ourselves to sink into these places where in the natural it makes zero sense.

Like you can't breathe underwater in the natural, right?

But because God has given us the breath to breathe underwater, it's absolutely possible.

And this is kind of a little side note, but what's fun is in these last, you know, decades of doing this jump ship thing together, I've had multiple dreams in actual sleep kind of dreams where I have been overtaken by like giant waves.

And I'm thinking, in my dream, I cannot breathe.

I cannot breathe.

And then the still small voice comes and says, peace, yes, you can open your mouth and breathe.

The supernatural takes over.

The physics of the natural just don't apply anymore.

I love this line of he rescued me from the mighty waters and drew me unto himself.

And Another one, Isaiah 43:2, it says it so beautifully.

When you pass through the deep, stormy sea, you can count on me to be there with you.

When you pass through raging rivers, you will not drown.

Or in this case, in the ocean, you will not drown.

And that is the promise underneath every jump ship moment.

He's already there in the deep waters, waiting for you, drawing himself to you.

Like Jesus himself is pulling you into himself.

That's where when we surrender, we get to land right in to himself, Jesus.

That's where transformation happens.

The very first time that we experienced this jump ship rock of remembrance was probably about 15 plus years ago.

My husband and I had both been praying about a certain situation and it was a big decision for our family and we had both felt similar things of it's time to jump ship.

And we said those exact words.

And what's funny is that I don't even know where that phrase came from.

I, I did not make that up.

That was a holy spirit little plop of a phrase into my spirit.

And then we went on a retreat together.

And there in the living room was a painting of a giant ship.

I am not making this up.

A giant ship.

And then they passed out this card that had a person sinking in deep waters.

It just blew me away.

It was one of those God winks of like, wow, thank you Lord for speaking so specifically to both Joshua and I.

And that's the kind of God that we serve.

He's going to confirm what he has spoken.

He will meet you in the very details.

And that painting and that little card became a marker for us.

It was, it was a rock, it was an anchor for us that we have carried into every jump ship season since then.

Now I want to bring in something from the book of Joshua because I think it ties in beautifully with the jump ship phrase.

And we have been reading through the book of Joshua in these last few weeks and it's been so incredibly life giving to read about Joshua and his leadership and him following and taking the mantle that was on Moses.

Moses never got to enter the promised land, but Joshua was going to be able to enter the promised land.

So at the very beginning of the book of Joshua, Joshua is told over and over, be strong and courageous.

God didn't say that because what was ahead of them was going to be easy.

When do we hear be strong and courageous?

Right.

When we need to have courage and strength to fight for something.

Right?

So he said it because Joshua is going to need courage to fight for the inheritance that was already his and the Israelites.

And every time Joshua moved without asking the Lord, things went sideways.

And every time he listened, he prayed, every time he leaned in and trusted God, God would go before him and win the battle on his behalf.

Joshua had to, quote, unquote, jump ship into the promised land over and over again.

And Joshua also had Caleb.

Caleb was one of the spies who went into the land and came back and said, yep, there are giants, there are Giants there, but they are ours to defeat.

God has already won this.

When everyone else was shrinking back in fear, Caleb was the one that was standing on the deck of the ship saying, run, jump.

God has you.

Quote unquote.

He wasn't really on the ship.

He was saying, go, go conquer.

God is with you.

So.

So we all need a Caleb.

We need people in our lives who, when the waves start to feel overwhelming and our human brain starts saying, you cannot breathe underwater, they look at us and they say, yes, you can.

God is faithful.

He's already gone ahead of you.

And in the season, I've been able to watch my husband walk into this new role surrounded by men who are exactly that.

They are Calebs.

They look at what is ahead and they say, they that is not a problem for God.

He's already got it.

And I'm telling you, that kind of community changes everything.

So as you think of your own jump ship moment, I want to ask you, who is your Caleb?

Who is running toward the edge of the deck with you?

Who is cheering you on from the shore or down in the water?

Because you are not meant to jump alone.

And maybe you've been listening today and something in your spirit has been stirring.

And maybe you've been hearing the words jump ship for a while now.

Maybe it's been weeks or months.

Maybe you've been standing at the edge of the deck, one hand still on the railing, not quite ready to let go.

And I see you, I really do, because I know what that tension feels like.

So first I just want to say it's okay that it's taken time.

This is not about reckless leaping.

This is about spirit led courage.

There is a difference.

But now hear me say this with all the love that I have.

That my friend, if you have been hearing, take the leap of faith, jump ship, if you've been hearing that nudge in your spirit for a while now, it is time.

God's not asking you to figure out how to breathe underwater before you jump.

He's asking you to trust that he will give you the breath once you do.

He is already in the deep, deep waters.

He is already waiting.

And he's already won the battle for the inheritance on the other side.

So run.

Run as fast as you can and leap.

And he's going to meet you there.

He always, always does.

If today stirred something in you and you want to go deeper, I have some more episodes that I'd love to point towards you.

Because like I said, we have walked this, this rock of remembrance quite a few times, including you might remember, when I laid down holistic hearts for a whole year.

More recently laying down my podcast business.

That was another Jump Ship time and over and has proved himself faithful.

But I will say if you want to go deeper into this conversation conversation, I encourage you to go listen to episode 56 where we explore the ship.

Maybe this is a new ship for you.

It's a really neat encounter to walk around the ship.

I really love that encounter.

It was near and dear to my heart.

Um, episode 41 is all about surrender because a lot of this is about surrendering, right?

It is running and letting go.

It is surrendering down into the depths of the ocean, AKA the spirit.

Right?

So both feel really relevant if you are in this season.

And I'm also going to be posting a guided Jump Ship encounter episode most likely next week and so you can press play, close your eyes and let the Holy Spirit take the lead and help you go in deep with Him.

And I cannot wait to create that one.

All right, I'm going to drop a Jump Ship playlist of worship music in the show notes as well.

It's one I've had for many years and it's really ministered to both my husband and I through these seasons of Jump ship time.

So friends, thanks so much for being here.

Until next time.

I hope you encounter God in beautiful, tender and brand new ways today.