Three of the best questions I was ever asked during my ten years as a single mom came after what seemed like eight thousand years of strategically placing the pieces of my life together.

December 2009, I was given the opportunity to work with a team of individuals that were doing really big things.

What made it so great?

The leadership.

My boss had the ability to lead and challenge in ways that evoked thought and change.

In January 2011, during a team training, a group of 20 of us were handed a red book with lots of empty pages. For the next couple of hours we discussed, in great detail and description, these two questions:

1. where were you, in life, five years ago?
2. where do you want to be in five years?

To this day this red book houses my hopes and dreams.

A written document of my aspirations.

I wrote a little bit in this book right after that training but then moved on. Summer of 2012, eighteen months later, I opened the book again. This time to work on a dream. Ironically, evoked from the same boss and the third question…

Why do you get up and come to work every day?

Although all three of these questions alone seems very basic, I laid out my heart and made space for vulnerable.

Later, I would learn the power of writing down the desires of your heart. Everything on those pages, except one I wrote out that day, came to pass by 2016. The five-year mark.

I wonder to this day if it would’ve happened like that had I not been asked those questions, nor had I thoughtfully answered them.

Maybe so, but I wouldn’t have had the same reflection.

Looking back..

I was at a crossroad.

A time in my life where a variety of factors were positioning me to make adjustments to how I had been doing life, for too long.

I don’t know if it had anything to do with me or if it was all about a story God had prepared years ago, and he was in the middle of changing the chapter.

So why am I telling you this?

I believe each season of life lends itself to certain questions about who we are and the mission we are on.

Sometimes we have an insatiable desire, spoken or unspoken, known or unknown, to move into a new place. You know, that moment when the story shifts.

I can’t help but wonder if you are in the middle of changing the chapter of your life. Do you have a desire to make it to the other side but uncertain of what that looks like? Does the thought of traveling there make you feel afraid, doubtful, or unsure?

I want to assure you doing the right thing every day will equip you to lift the pages of each of your life chapters. Answering those tough questions will provide you the wisdom to move into new places.

And finally friend, I’m curious if you know the importance of the key people placed in this very season you are in.  And if so, are you allowing yourself to be challenged by digging deep enough to honestly answer the questions designed just for you?

When I took that job on that team to be led by someone I admired, I wasn’t expecting my life to take the turn it did. But as each opportunity and question presented itself, I made myself available. Right in the middle of my mess, I hesitantly welcomed opportunities for change.

As this year moves forward and unfolds it’s many gifts awaiting discovery, be intentional about listening to the questions that fall into your lap.

Maybe it’s your time for a new chapter.

For you to think about: what questions have you been avoiding or not making time to answer? Who is currently in your life to teach you something you may or may not be ready to learn?