How We Moved Across the Country on a Gut Feeling

The leap of faith that led us home

As new college grads my husband and I ran away to the mountains of Colorado to start our life together. We wanted a place that was just ours without family expectations or anything else as we learned to be adults and became a family just the two of us as newlyweds.

Although we loved our little mountain town with our random moose and mountain goat encounters and a quirky favorite local breakfast shop it was hard to live in a rural mountain community and we didn’t feel like it was something we could do long term.

One of my favorite views on one of my favorite hikes!

My husband worked at the CPA firm right off the main street with epic mountain views right outside of his window. But he felt a pull to do something other than spend his Saturdays in the office during tax season.

We spent many conversations wondering where we would end up. We felt a little like we were pulling ideas out of a hat as we brainstormed about our future together. Somewhere in the conversation one of us mentioned Tennessee. I had never been to Tennessee.

I knew it was in the South. I knew it would be a lower cost of living. I knew there were some mountains on one side of it. It was more central and easier to travel to other places from than our two hour drive down the mountain to the airport. As we talked about it we decided we might like it.

I had listened to my husband continually dream about the career he wanted. He was close but not there yet. He was somewhat adjacent to where he wanted to be. I took it upon myself to search around online until I finally found a job that seemed perfect for him. I sent the posting to his personal email and he replied to me, “I’m not qualified.” I said, “So what? Apply!” So he did.

Within a few weeks the company flew us out to Tennessee. I took my first drive around downtown Franklin in a rental pick up truck while I prayed as my husband spent his entire day in interviews. He had just chopped his long mountain man hairstyle to make a good impression during his final rounds of interviews.

We returned back to Colorado after our quick trip to the rolling green hills of Franklin. I loved everything about it. My husband grew up with a Southern culture in Oklahoma City and I grew up in a Chicago suburb that felt weirdly similar to Franklin, TN with its old historic buildings and small town charm near a bigger city.

We felt like God had hand selected this town for us.

Soon, my husband had a job offer in hand and we headed down the mountain with a U-haul trailer hoping we wouldn’t regret this decision. From start to finish all our decisions happened really quickly. We felt like we had to justify them at times because it seemed so strange to be moving again, making career changes, and going to another totally new and unfamiliar place.

But we followed this pull we felt toward Franklin. When we arrived people would ask us how and why we ended up there and we would try to explain this unexplainable nudge from God that led us here.

One little thing after another pushed and pulled us to start our life in middle Tennessee. We didn’t really know what to expect fully but we just knew it felt right.

“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”

-Oswald Chambers

It was still a huge change and we struggled with some aspects of that change. Sometimes I still miss the way my weekends used to look—lacing up hiking boots in the trunk of the car before the sun came up just to return back to that car in the late afternoon exhausted, muddy, stopping at a little gas station before returning to our tiny apartment for a hot shower and a long nap.

The day we were crazy enough to hike multiple 14ers in one day. LOL.

But I feel confident and content knowing we are exactly where we need to be.

Sometimes, I think we have to make big changes. Big decisions. Quick moves. It’s almost like our compass is just a few degrees off course and we have to do something a bit dramatic to correct it.

But then, we settle in. We slow down. And we just continue.

I don’t think my husband or I have felt that profound push of the Holy Spirit in the way we felt it then since that time in our lives. We now have a beautiful home in Franklin, TN that we brought our baby boy home to. We have the cute little dog we always talked about getting. My husband feels fulfilled and deep purpose in his work each day. We simply feel like we are right on course.

We have been in Tennessee for over five years now. It’s not all perfect. But it feels right.

When I think back to us five years ago, packing up our cars again to embrace another season of change, I’m so proud of us. Because we were young and unsure of ourselves but we still decided to trust that push and follow that wind where it took us. Now, we are amazed by the ways God has shown us this is where we are meant to be.

After that experience, I wondered if life with God would always feel this way—making a big, dramatic move and doing it fast, as soon as God calls.

Sometimes it is.

But more often, I think we do that to shift that compass to where it needs to be pointed. Then we just keep walking in that direction until something changes.

Right now we are continuing in that same direction—confident, fulfilled, and enjoying every little moment on the way. It’s not a big, dramatic shift to talk about with epic stories to tell but it’s small, continual faithfulness. Life with God is often both.

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" Isaiah 30:21

By the way, if you haven’t already, check out my podcast Holy Labor!

A new episode just dropped where we dive deep into body image and how we, as Christian women, can navigate the pressure to feel like our bodies were "made to do this"—especially when things don’t go as planned.

Last week’s episode was all about facing the unexpected, like when something happens that we never thought would happen to us. Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget to share if you enjoy it!