"Don't you be afraid / Of giants in your way / With God you know that anything's possible / So step into the fight / He's right there by your side."
- "Giants Fall," Francesca Battistelli

If you would have told me what my life would currently look like six months ago, I would have laughed you to the door. I mean, who in their right mind up and leaves their home, abandons all familiarity and heads to a city all the way on the opposite side of the continent to purse their God-given dreams? That's the kind of stuff you read about in the first few books of the Bible. Those type of things don't happen today.

Unless you're me. Or you're crazy. Which in this case, is probably one in the same.

If you've followed this column for a long period of time (which I hope you have!) you'll notice I've been strikingly silent for awhile. Not that I'm complaining about that, you've been in the more-than-capable hands of the talented Mark Ryan and NRT newbie Caitlin Lassiter, and frankly, I've enjoyed just being a spectator of this brainchild I helped co-create several years ago.

It's crazy to think how much has happened since this series started back in 2010. I was an 18-year-old fresh out of high school who was desperate for a platform to share her love of music and Jesus, who wanted some outlet to somehow fuse the two together.

I've been able to partner with NRT in some pretty remarkable ways since then, from high-profile writing assignments and interviewing artists to getting to cover events like The Dove Awards last fall. I mean really, what other 22-year-olds get the chance to go on tour with some of their favorite bands and see the world while connecting with thousands of crazy Christian music fans like themselves?

Not to mention how much my life has changed in deeply personal ways these last five years. I've been through a lot, from enduring some very private family issues, walking with my younger sister through a personal struggle with addiction and spontaneously deciding I wanted to lose 100 pounds and get my declining health in check.

Needless to say, NRT has been a mainstay through some pretty hectic years in my life. Life Beyond The Lyrics has been a huge part of that. You have been a huge part of that. Why anyone would want to stop and read the muddled words of a grammatically challenged word nerd is beyond me.

And that's why it's been so hard for me to let it go.

If any of you follow my personal blog, you'll know that I recently made the insane decision to throw caution to the wind and purse my dream as a writer over in Tennessee. We're talking "leaving home without a job or a car and very little money in my pocket to move in with friends, bringing only what I can fit into three small suitcases" insane. The stuff I read about in epic testimonies quickly became my own life.

In that time, I've seen God move in ways that are completely beyond conventional wisdom. My roommates and I found a bigger apartment (so yours truly won't be sleeping on the couch every night, contrary to popular concern). I bought a car, I found a job, and I've somehow managed to set down roots and call this crazy place called Nashville, Tennessee my home.

You'd think after coping with so much change in such a short period of time, that the last thing on my mind would be more change. Yet if I've learned anything in following Jesus these last seven years, it's that when it rains, it pours. He likes to make everything happen all at once. Perhaps its His way of furthering our dependance on His strength.

Among the bevy of personal changes I'm grappling with, one of the big choices I feel led to make it to step away from NRT for a season.

I wrestled with this for a lot longer than I should have, and if I am completely honest, I'm still not 100% okay with it. Most days, I wake up and realize what I'm walking away from and wonder what on earth God is doing, but that's when I need to dig deep past my own wants and trust that He's up to something greater, something I maybe can't see quite yet.

Honesty has been a major theme in my life since 2014 started. One of my goals for the year was to push the boundaries of how authentic I've been in the past and allow my broken vulnerabilities to be a source in which God could potentially provide some sort of healing, both to myself and to others. Go figure in the same year, one of my favorite CCM artists Francesca Battistelli would come out with an album aptly titled If We're Honest.

There's a song on the album called "Giants Fall," which I've playfully joked is the current anthem of my life. Similarities aside, there's a lyric in the chorus that says "The stones inside your hand might be small, but watch the giants fall." That may not be the most spiritually significant lyric in the song, but for where I'm at in life right now, it speaks volumes.

I really don't know what these next six months of my life are going to look like, what changes hide behind the corner, and what surprises lurk among the shadows. Heck, I'm really not sure what I'm doing an hour from now, let alone the next half a year. It's been a patience tester for this self-proclaimed control freak, that's for sure!

It's equal parts exhilarating and unnerving. Part of me so wants to cling to the familiarity of things I know and love for the sake that they are the only things around me I recognize, but on the other hand, I need to rest in the fact that God wouldn't be asking me to set aside something I love so much if it wasn't because He was planning on handing me something else. He never lets us stay empty handed for too long. He's got far too many ideas to keep us idle.

One verse I'm clinging to like glue lately is found in Psalm 46:10, which simply states "Be still, and know that I am God."

The word "know" in this context can be traced to the Hebrew word Yadah, which means "to know and be known." I find something strikingly beautiful about that. It's one thing to love God, it's another thing entirely to know Him. That's what I want more than anything on this earth: to know Him, and be known by Him.

I still have a lot of challenges in front of me as I step out into uncharted waters, and most days, I feel like the stones I have tucked away in my palms are hardly enough to dink armor, let alone strike a giant down. That's when I have to believe that the God I'm seeking to know so intimately has perspective beyond the ordinary. Where I see rocks and odds, He sees victory.

Maybe you're like me and you find yourself in a season of uncertainty. Maybe you've just graduated, or lost something special, or life is turned upside down. Whatever battles you're facing, whatever hard things He's asking you to do, know beyond all reasoning, He is with you, and you will see those giants fall.

I'll be right there with you flinging pebbles.