Happy 2020, friends!

All of my 2019 was spent in anticipation for 2020, the year of my first sabbatical with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. For every seven years on staff, we get to take 6 months for rest. I’m tempted to over-explain why I deserve this or why I am so looking forward to it, why it’s a good idea, etc. But, that’s just my insecurity. No one in my life (so far) thinks it’s crazy or extra that I am taking a sabbatical. And if you do, I guess I don’t care! How’s that for new year, new me?

However, I will tell you why I’m grateful for my sabbatical and what I hope to be doing just in case you’re curious. Everyone has already been congratulating me on my break, even though it doesn’t start until January 18th. Until then, I’m tying up loose ends, working on things here in Tucson, getting my finances and fundraising in order because 2019 was the year of the never ending deficit. And then it ended! Praise God. But I’m not planning on having a deficit for 2020…or maybe ever again.

But wow, I need a break! From fundraising and student recruitment. A lot of my job with IV is the back and forth of invitation and rejection. I need a break from sitting in peoples’ stories with them. They are heavy and not mine to carry. I also need a break from Bridget With-5-part-time-jobs Gee. From wearing every hat that I wear all at once- team leader, landlord, roommate, friend, aunt, daughter, church member, employee, tutor, writer. Now, I can’t escape some of those, and I don’t want to, but I can choose to take a break from a couple. For six months I will not be my roommates’ landlord, just the landlord of my tenants. For most of 2020 I won’t be any students’ staff worker. I’m finished with tutoring after 4 years of it! Lots of roles have ended, and some are being put on pause.

We need this.We need transition and change, endings and new beginnings!

I’m so grateful for everything the past 11.5 years with InterVarsity has been- my life is utterly changed. I am more me. I know God more deeply! He’s even greater than I could have predicted! I have met countless AMAZING people because of IV. I have been given so many opportunities and chances and was invited into so much risk. My community and support netowrk believed in me, prayed for me, and sent me out. I have grown and learned and repented and surrendered so much. I’ve advocated for myself and others. I was stretched and stretched myself. Sometimes too thin.

For a long time I’ve played every part. I’ve tried to be everything I thought everyone wanted me to be. But it gets exhausting- and that’s God’s mercy that it doesn’t work.
One day in May, in a little town in Spain, somewhere along the Camino, while I sipped a Coke and munched on una tapa, God spoke very clearly to me, “You are not meant to be someone else, somewhere else, my Bridget. I want you here, now, exactly as you are.”
What freedom. What deep, holy, ancient truth.

So that’s who #SabbaticalBG will be. God’s Bridget. Sitting and listening to him about who I am. Going where only He can send me. Being only who he tells me to be. I will return to God’s Bridget. Not Everyone’s Bridget as made up by me. I want to be made of Godstuff. Of his purpose. I have to slow down and have an unhurried schedule, empty, ready to listen and follow the voice of the Holy One.

As for the details:
I will take my sabbatical in Denver. I want to be somewhere different, somewhere semi-family, somewhere not too far.
I am not going to be taking any classes, or fundraising during that time.
I will be reading, writing, praying, going on retreats, meeting people, saying yes, and most of all, getting healthy.
My plan is to work more toward a primarily plant-based lifestyle, but not strictly. I need to do it for my health, and it’s something I really believe in after all this time of trying different things out.
I also am going to try actually dating. Not that I have a ton of control here, but I mean, we will see, won’t we? I want to find love! Who doesn’t?
And, I won’t be on Facebook or Instagram for the whole time.

So. Keep me in your prayers. Feel free to email me: bridgetgeeis@gmail.com to keep in touch. Or text me if you have my number. Or call me. Or Marco Polo me. Haha.

I’m excited to see what being #SabbaticalBG is like!