A Lot Can Happen in a Year… Dan Durrenberger

At the beginning of 2007, for example, I had almost no idea where my life was headed. I was 21 years old working full-time as a waiter near my parents’ suburban Chicago home. My mom and dad had left their home, though, to move to southern Wisconsin. So I had about a month to figure out my next move.

In February I quit my job and moved in with my newlywed friends. No, it was not as awkward as you’d think. Yes, it was incredibly inconvenient for everyone involved. I started working at a bank, where I had a supervisor whose purpose in life was to torment, belittle, and discourage me and any hope I had of “growing up.”

After a few months of this arrangement, my friends were rather eager to find out what I was planning to do in the fall; this was a very sweet way of asking me when I was going to move out. But there were no hard feelings, and I decided that I needed to go back to college and finish my Bachelor’s degree. A high school friend suggested moving to warmer weather and exercising my academic muscles at Florida State University, a college I had never heard of.

By the end of April, 2007, I applied to transfer what college credit I did have to that previously unknown institution. I got accepted, found random roommates on Facebook, and packed up my minivan with everything I owned to make the 1000-mile drive to Tallahassee.

The second weekend in town, I visited E3 with one of my roommates. Two months later in November, I started getting involved with student ministry. And by the end of 2007 I was leading the middle school group every Sunday.

God transformed my entire life in 12 short months. And he didn’t stop there. In every year since 2007, God has enacted huge changes in my life. At every turn in my life, God is working to make me more and more into who He created me to be. Sometimes the changes are huge, 1000-mile upheavals; other times the change is much smaller and often unseen by others. But wherever I make space for God to move, He usually does.

I am very excited to see what God is going to do to turn my world upside-down again in 2012. How are you preparing and making space for God to change things in your life?

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