Here is my story. 10 Years ago, I was working at Biola University in a job that I liked, but with absolutely no room for advancement (unless I wanted to get my PhD and become a professor, which I did not). So, I came up with what I thought was a pretty good plan. I started working toward getting my teaching credential. I like kids, I’m pretty passionate about education, and I’d get summers off. I was in.

I got my credential online while I was still working at Biola. In 2008, I quit my job and started my student teaching – (you know, working full-time for 6 months with no pay) in Anaheim. I worked with two excellent master teachers, and although teaching jobs were extremely tight in 2009, I managed to land a long-term sub job that turned into an actual teaching job. I really enjoyed teaching, and I can say that I made a pretty significant impact in the lives of a couple of the students in the class. However, 2009 was also when the California economy decided to tank, meaning that all new teachers across my district (and almost every other district) were laid off.

June 19, 2009 was my last day teaching. How do I remember the date? It was the day before our youngest son, Zac, was born. So, I was the jobless, proud father of an infant and a 4-year-old. Yikes. Our plan had been for Ann to work part time and me to work full time. That way she would be home with the kids 2 or 3 days a week. It was important for us that we raise our children and not farm that out to a babysitter or daycare as much as possible.

We learned pretty quickly that God had a very different plan for us. Ann went back to work full-time and I was going to be home with the boys. Even if I had wanted to get a job, there were very few available. And those that were available wouldn’t have even paid for childcare for a baby and a four year old. I didn’t find the prospect of working full-time, only to come out with less money after childcare to be all that appealing, but I also did not like the idea of “just staying home with the boys.” This was a huge adjustment for me (and for Ann) and it was quite a process for us to be OK with our new lives.

God was very gracious to us though, and we were able to see that we were exactly where God wanted us to be. I was able to use my training as a teacher to help Luke as he was trying to learn to read despite a pretty serious eye problem that we did not know about. And God gave Ann a peace that she couldn’t explain about going back to work full time when her heart was yearning to spend more time with her boys. I’m not going to say it was easy – it wasn’t. But we both were open to seeing where God was taking us through this journey.

I ended up getting stir crazy and looking for what I could do to earn money from home. I stumbled on online marketing and spent every minute of Zac’s naps and a lot of time after Ann got home learning as much as I could about web design, social media, email marketing and search engine optimization. I started selling things online and at least helping to pay the bills. I had some good months and I had some… quiet months. But I was learning a lot. I ended up turning that new knowledge into a business that I still operate today.

The first two or three years or so of being at home as a major growing process for me. I became more disciplined and hard working than I had ever been in my life. Everything was new and nothing was comfortable. I was doing it all while shuttling Luke to school, supervising naps, potty training Zac – all things I had never planned to do and I was happy to admit that I had no idea what I was doing. The problem was I started figure out what I was doing and I got too comfortable with my new routine. And, somewhere along the way I stopped growing because of it. I knew what each day held and I knew that I could do it pretty easily. My productivity slipped a bit and at first I didn’t really notice.

A couple of years later my business was struggling, I was hurting my relationship with Ann, I wasn’t doing all that I should with Luke and Zac, and I didn’t even realize it. Everything was about being comfortable. I was taking no risks, looking for nothing new, and I wasn’t growing spiritually. Gradually I realized that something was off, that I wasn’t fulfilled in what I was doing, that my life was not what I wanted it to be, and that I wasn’t who I wanted to be. I just didn’t know what to do about it. Thankfully I have an amazing and forgiving wife. She helped me to see what was going on and I have been working on coming out of my self-induced coma of comfort for a few months now.

That is where the idea for starting this blog and having an incredibly UNcomfortable May came from. I’ll be doing something uncomfortable every day throughout May (except for my birthday, I’m taking my birthday off of the challenge). Some days will be slightly uncomfortable, others will be very uncomfortable. I don’t know what is going to come of it, but I am hoping to come out of my rut and get back to being the husband, father and man that God has called me to be.