A Life Update From Annie

Checking out the cotton fields during a recent visit to the Deep South. (Credit: A.C.)

A little over a year ago I posted this article, saying goodbye to an organization—Intellectual Takeout—that was a major part of my life for 13 years. Numbers of you hopped on over to this Substack following my announcement; many others have come in the months since.

Those who know me best know that I am fond of keeping track of special dates and liable to pull up obscure happenings when their anniversaries roll around. So even though this is a bit of a sad anniversary for me—and a few weeks late—I’d still like to mark it by reflecting on how I grew, what I learned, and some of the unique and unexpected opportunities God gave me.

(For those of you who’d prefer to skip the personal reflections—and trust me, I don’t blame you, in fact, it’s somewhat hard to share them!—I give you fair warning that this is where you need to stop reading. Come back another time when I’m talking about something less personal!)

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Hebrews 11:8 recounts the life and faith of the patriarch Abraham, noting that “when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”

That part in bold is a good description of where I was a year ago. Oh, sure, I had a generic idea of what I might do, but leaving a place that had been a comfort and support for many years was not something I would have chosen had God not used various circumstances to push me out of my safe nest.

And I wasn’t exactly a model of faith like Abraham, either. After taking a sabbatical for several weeks, I jumped into my new freelancing gig with both feet … and had the worst case of writer’s block ever.

“What was I THINKING?!?” I may or may not have wailed to myself that first day back in the saddle. “This was the stupidest idea ever!”

But the God who sent me out giving me little knowledge of where I was going was not slow to provide, and I stood amazed as he gave me two job offers—both unsought—within the next few days.

And He continued to provide as the months passed, giving me time to:

• Recharge some very drained batteries. (Trust me, I had the most enjoyable summer I’ve had in years, having numbers of opportunities to travel and enjoy working in my garden and preserve its produce. Behold a few samples of rhubarb jelly, dill pickles, and yet another dishpan of tomatoes gleaned from my garden!)

  

  

  

• Expand into new positions and challenges I wasn’t used to. (Some of which included trotting around and interviewing interesting individuals for various articles, one of my favorites being the article I did on my friend Bonnie and her amazing library for American Essence Magazine. Also, shameless plug for American Essence—I got to see a copy for the first time this summer and I loved it! If you’re looking for some feel-good, Americana reading material, check it out!)

• Learning to work through the bitterness that past difficulties can sometimes bring.

To aid in that last part, I recently began recording a list of all the good things that never would have happened had I not felt the need to move on from a place of comfort and security, and found to my surprise that God truly does “move in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform,” as the poet William Cowper once said.

A few weeks ago, while traveling for one of my new work positions, I got into a conversation with a woman and suddenly found I had another thing to add to that list. This woman, a wife and mother of four, began telling me her own story of how she got into her current trajectory of waging battle in the culture war.

And then she stunned me, saying something to the effect of: “It was actually Intellectual Takeout that started me thinking about these things,” mentioning how articles posted by my team years ago had got her to question the establishment elites and their positions, while also encouraging her to start researching to uncover truth.

Today, this woman is writing her own articles and speaking to thousands through a daily radio program.

I’m tearing up just thinking about that encounter again. Why? Because in the years I worked at Intellectual Takeout, I often felt like I was just sitting in my little cubby-hole of an office, pounding away at my keyboard, spinning my little counter-cultural ideas, never really knowing what impact they were having on others. Meeting that woman and hearing her story was one of those times where God pulled back the curtain and gave me a little glimpse that yes, perhaps all the little articles I’ve written over the years had a far bigger positive impact than I will ever know this side of Heaven.

And you know what? That should be an encouragement to each of us.

It’s so easy to go through life, watching the world fall apart, getting discouraged, and wondering what we can do to make a difference.

One answer to that question is, as author Elisabeth Elliot used to routinely say, “Do the next thing.”

Do the next thing in your family, changing those diapers, or preparing another meal, or bringing home the bacon from a boring job day after day.

Do the next thing in your community, maintaining your house and yard, being a neighbor or friend that others can turn to for comfort and encouragement.

Do the next thing in your church, greeting others with a smile, serving where you can, joining in the worship wholeheartedly, and taking the messages taught there to heart by applying them in your life.

In these gray days of November, it’s easy to get discouraged and feel like we’re not doing much of anything. Let’s not give into those thoughts—let’s just keep doing the next thing, serving faithfully in the places God has put us.

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