I haven’t always been a teacher. In fact, becoming a teacher was one of the last things I ever wanted to do. A career known for being overworked, undervalued, and underpaid? No, thank you.

For eight years before I stepped into a classroom, I was a pharmacist.

I grew up hanging out behind the pharmacy counter with my Uncle Ed at the Rite Aid in our hometown. If you know him, you know he is the GOAT in Millen, GA when it comes to caring for patients. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to make sure his customers were taken care of—from filling a sick baby’s prescription in the middle of the night, to driving to a widow’s house to organize her medicines, to sitting at the bedside of a patient dying of cancer.

He modeled for me what it looked like to truly care for people in their moments of greatest need.

When I was 15, he and his partner opened a small independent pharmacy, and I went to work there as a cashier. I fell in love with our customers and the relationships I was able to build with their families. That led me to pursue a Doctorate of Pharmacy, and in the summer of 2012, I graduated and became a licensed pharmacist.

Corporate Pharmacy Burnout

For the first two years of my career, I worked for Walgreens. Let me just pause here to say this: if you know a pharmacist or anyone working in a corporate pharmacy, say a prayer for them, y’all.

If I believed in purgatory, it would be a 14-hour Walgreens shift with no breaks for lunch—or even the bathroom.

And this isn’t just about pharmacy. It’s happening in healthcare across our country. It’s unsafe and it’s immoral. I could rage about the state of healthcare work conditions for hours, but that’s not what this blog is about.

Two years in, I was at my wit’s end. I told Dallas we needed to start praying, because if God didn’t give me a better job, I was going to walk away. The toll on my physical and mental health was becoming unbearable. A cardiologist literally told me, “If you don’t get your stress level under control, it will kill you.”

So we prayed. And God answered.

In 2015, I left Walgreens and went to work full-time at my uncle’s independent pharmacy. I was back doing what I loved—personalized care that mattered to me and to our customers. And I could finally be present with my husband and our daughter, who was born in 2016. Life felt like it was smoothing out. I was starting to coast.

But here’s the thing: if you’ve walked with the Lord for any amount of time, you know He doesn’t much like coasting. He stretches us.

The Call to Something New

In May of 2018, through a series of unexpected events, God called us out of our hometown. Away from my job. Away from the church we had planted. We were headed to First Baptist Simpsonville / Upstate Church in Simpsonville, SC.

At the time, it made absolutely no sense. I had no job. We had no family there. Financially and emotionally, it felt foolish. I remember telling Dallas, “I wish this church would’ve just left us alone.” I wanted to hold on to what was common and comfortable.

But God wouldn’t allow that. He wanted more for us.

So there I was—in a new town, at a new church, surrounded by new people, with a two-year-old and no steady income. The only pharmacy jobs available were corporate ones. And I’d made a deal with God: I wouldn’t go back to that.

For two years, I clawed my way through trying to keep my career going. It was who I was. It was what I’d poured my life into. I drove three hours back home to fill shifts. I dragged my toddler up and down the road. I took a part-time long-term care job over an hour away. I tried everything I could to make it work.

Until one Sunday at church, I came to the end of myself.

Breaking Point and Breakthrough

I was sitting on the front row at Upstate Church Harrison Bridge, where Dallas was the campus pastor. My work laptop was open on my lap, filling emergency prescriptions during service because it was my on-call weekend.

I was stressed. Tired. Empty.

I was running myself into the ground chasing a dream that had turned into a nightmare. During the invitation song at the end of the service, tears started to roll down my cheeks—and I’m not a crier, y’all. Unless I’m mad. And if you see that, just walk the other way.

But that day, I found myself broken. I was mad at God. I asked, “Why is this so hard? Why isn’t this working?”

And in that moment, I heard Him say: Let it go.

Quit fighting your plan and surrender to mine.

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Luke 12: A Reminder of What Matters Most

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear…
Consider the ravens… how much more valuable you are than birds!…
But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well…
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
—Luke 12:22–34

After church, I told Dallas, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but I know I’m not supposed to be a pharmacist anymore.”

The career that once felt like my identity had become a burden stealing my health, my peace, and my ability to live obediently.

No career is worth your family.
No career is worth your marriage.
No career is worth your children.
No career is worth your health.
And most of all—no career is worth your eternity or the eternity of the people you love.

From Letting Go to Leaping Forward

Over the next season of our lives, we prayed harder than we ever had. We tried to lean on the Lord to determine what was next, but I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy or immediately clear. Oh yea, and then Covid hit in the midst of it all. 

But then, everything started to fall into place. A church friend mentioned the alternative certification program through Greenville County Schools. I applied. I passed the middle school science Praxis exam on the first try. I interviewed at a middle school and was hired the next day.

And in August 2020, I became a sixth-grade science teacher.

Have I ever looked back? Not once.

The Mission Field of Middle School

Is it easy? No. Have you ever tried to get thirty twelve-year-olds to focus for 57 minutes? It’s laughable.

But teaching is a mission field. Every single day is a chance to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the next generation. It’s a calling I never wanted—but I needed, even though I didn’t know it.

Yes, we lost half my income. We had to make big changes. In Disney language, we went from deluxe resorts to value stays. Let’s just say we’re not booking a theme park view room at the Poly anytime soon. But God was faithful.

He surrounded me with people who helped me thrive in a new career. He gave me time with my family I never had as a pharmacist. I got to be a partner in ministry alongside my husband instead of the pastor’s wife who just warms the seat on the front row on Sunday’s

He replaced stress with peace. And I believe it’s because I said yes when He told me to step.

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A Life Poured Out

God will always ask for more than you’re comfortable giving—but He will always take you further than you ever thought you could go.

And every time you say yes, the next yes gets easier.

The truth is, it’s rarely about the job itself. It’s about pride. It’s about positions. It’s about possessions. That’s what it was for me.

I’m not saying God is asking everyone to quit their well-paying job. We all have different callings. But He might be.

If He does… will you step out? Or stay stuck in the comfort of what’s common?

Because I promise you this: if you follow Jesus long enough, He will ask you to do something hard. Something that seems crazy. Something that costs you more than you planned. Because a Christ-centered life is not a life of comfort—it’s a life poured out for the right purpose.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?’”
—Matthew 16:24–26

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What Is God Asking You to Let Go Of?

Is there something you’re holding onto that God’s asking you to surrender? Maybe something big. Maybe something small. Maybe just something safe.

What is He putting His finger on in your life today?

I’ll leave you with this:

“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” —Philippians 3:8

Don’t miss the blessing of God’s faithfulness because you are clinging too tightly to the common and comfortable. Take the step.

He will meet you there.

I take a look at my life now and how much I love the church and the job that I thought I didn’t want, and I am reminded that his ways are better than our ways and his thoughts better than our thoughts. He doesn’t just give us life, he gives us life abundantly. We just have to be willing to choose his ways instead of our ways. 

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