a woman sitting on a mountain side staring out into the openness

Christian Poetry

Pull Up Stakes and Enlarge the Place of Your Tent

November 14, 2023

Cozy. Comfy.

Secure. Safe.

My rhythm, routine

Unchanged. Predictable.

Come out.

He calls.

It’s time.

Leave Home.

Leave Family. Friends.

Job. Community.

Go.

Had I heard this, two years earlier, I’d have dug in my heels, rationalized, argued.

But that day, I yielded because He’d prepared the way in my heart to say yes.

My ‘yes’ changed the trajectory of each person in my family. Retirement for my husband. New school for my daughter. New career for me. It impacted my parents and yet I saw God’s hand expand each one of our worlds.

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
Mark 8:36 NIV

I was in danger of losing myself to the security of the known.

My husband shrunk under the weight of all that brought me security. My daughter, robbed, in the place I thought secure. Then the world became insecure as Covid regulations isolated us all.

I heard it. The invitation. The invitation to Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).

In the stillness came freedom.

Freedom to release my grip on all that brought me security.

My heart unclenched. My husband’s eyes brightened. My daughter? Well, that’s her story to tell.

God leveled the obstacles one by one and added His provision for the next step plus community. Fellow sojourners who also stepped out and asked God to enlarge their tents.

What’s your response when God asks you to pull up stakes and enlarge the place of your tent?

Tamara Wanner

Tamara Wanner’s love affair with books began in Grade One. She pursued English as her major at the University of Saskatchewan and was torn between journalism or education. Her love of children won out. Now retired, her career touched the lives of students from kindergarten to Grade Twelve by inspiring others to write. She crafted plays to bring out her students’ talents. Easter and Christmas programs in her church benefitted from her writing as well. Tamara Wanner once thought her legacy would end with her but the Creator had a far different idea. She won her husband’s wedding band two years before they met. They waited nine years to be parents. She often wondered why her story didn’t sound like the books she’s read. Yet the legacy she’s received is full of compassion and grace for those whose pages have been blotted with tears over miscarriage and infertility. Her writing walks alongside those who want to re-image their legacy by pointing them back to the One who created them.