Proud to Present: The Guy Who Dreams with His Wife
What's going on friends of the internet! Let me introduce myself to all you readers out there. I'm Andy Browning and I live in the upper Northwest corner of Colorado in a town called Craig! You may of guessed that I am Jourdyn's husband! If you did congratulations! You just won the award for, "Best Curiosity!" All joking aside, Jourdyn first started this blog and has written awesome pieces of her stories of growth and encouragement for the last three years! Now we have felt led to do this together!I want to share with you how I met this amazing woman-of-Christ, how she has encouraged me in my faith, and how awesome it is to be able to team up with her in this wild adventure that is our life! So here we go!
It all started in the summer of 2018! I was flying from Denver, where most people from our small town flew out of, to Branson, which I have deemed as the, "PG version of Las Vegas." In the middle of the attractions and buffet restaurants, there is a program through Young Life that I had the blessing to do called, Discipleship Focus. Little did I know that one of the requirements of doing DFO (Discipleship Focus) is that we were responsible for the majority of our meals. The only problem was that I didn't know about this requirement and did not bring any groceries with me on the plane. So I was caught in a little bit of a pickle when I first showed up to Notch Pines, the camp we all lived in.
After getting to know the other college students and 20 somethings that were at Notch, I was approached by one of our good friends Cameo. She saw that I had a puzzled look on my face, as I was trying to figure out what to fill my belly with, and invited me to eat some tacos in her cabin (yes Cameo I'll give you the credit for starting our love story)! In her cabin, I met the rest of her cabin mates, one of those being Jourdyn!
I'm going to be honest with you I don't remember how every part of that first conversation went down, but what I do remember is that it took me awhile to do what I set out to do in enjoying some tacos. Jourdyn and I talked about where we were from, what brought us to DFO, and our involvement with Young Life in our communities. The part of the conversation that struck me the most is when we were talking about what we wanted to do with Young Life in the future. The way that Jourd talked about her desire to be on Young Life staff, and how she encouraged me to go for it, was so enthusiastic to me. It was as if her first thought was not on how to make the dream come true, it was on just the dream itself. Unlike me, I was thinking about the logistics of what it would take to make the dream a reality. It was one of the first moments that made me think, "there is something different about this girl." I was eager to find out and keep getting to know her.
 |
| Jourdyn and I hiking the Whitaker Point Trail head in North Arkansas. |
I was so eager to get to know Jourdyn that there was even some moments during DFO that I would intentionally do something to spend more time with her. That way of being intentional would take in the shape of going to do laundry with her, looking around to see her coming up to the club room for our weekly "family" meetings, and taking a small bit of time away from the DFO group to hanging out with Jourd. As weird of an approach as that can be to being intentional with Jourdyn, I also knew that she needs her space, so I pursued her in the safest way. For example we were hiking as a DFO group in Arkansas. We both spent time with our friends mostly and took pictures together. But when we were coming back from our scenic view, I saw Jourdyn hiking in the back of the group and wanted to hike with. I did not want to creep up in her space so I went up ahead a little, but just enough so that Jourd could see me hiking and maybe think about me a little bit. So we stayed within the DFO rules of maintaining non-exclusive relationships, and kept pursuing each other as friends while pursuing Jesus first in our own relationships with Him.
What really elevated our friendship more and more was when I needed a ride to Kansas City to catch my flight back to Colorado. I was preparing to fly back to Denver to take our Young Life kids to summer camp. The only problem was that I had no ride to take me to KC so I could catch my flight. That was when Jourdyn stepped up to the plate and volunteered to drive me there during her day off. This was an amazing shock to me because not only was someone willing to spend their day off to drive me four plus hours to get me to my flight, but it was the one person that I had been pursuing and connecting with on a deeper level. Good thing I was learning what it was like to present everything to Jesus, including the way I felt about Jourdyn, because I would continually need to do that later on as our story grew.
Jourdyn and I spent the entire drive to Kansas City, sharing our life stories and sharing how we came to know the Lord in our years growing up. In a way, sharing our love with Jesus in our experiences helped us dream together about our own walks with Him because of how that was our desire coming into DFO in having an intimate relationship with God.
After I came back from summer camp, I got back into pursuing God in DFO and asking Him to lead me in my friendship with Jourdyn in where He wants us to go. My roommates and friends then encouraged me to take Jourdyn out on what we called, "etads," which is date spelled backwards. The idea was to encourage us to pursue people as friends, while paying for ourselves in whatever we did together. So we went together, continued to connect and get to know each other, and continued to dream together of what our lives could look like. We both connected more as we were dreaming together of the possibility of being on Young Life staff in our areas. Our feelings grew more and more, Jourd had mentioned that she was content with where God had her in life. I had to keep presenting these feelings to the Lord. I had learned that when I was presenting to God, I had to present to Him how I wanted my dreams and feelings towards Jourdyn to line up with God's will for my life.
 |
| Our second "etad" on the Branson Ferris Wheel. Look at that scruff! |
So as we kept hanging out at Notch, going on sweet "etads," and getting to know each other throughout the summer I continually kept presenting my dreams of being with Jourdyn to God. We had also talked about when we could see each other after DFO was over. We dreamed about seeing each other so much, that we had numerous visits planned out all the way through Christmas break! With all this much dreaming, I knew I wanted to know Jourdyn on a deeper level then just friendship, but in a relationship that is based on God's love.
When the Discipleship Focus was getting close to end, I almost didn't know what to do. I knew I dreamed and desired to be with Jourdyn beyond DFO and beyond just our friendship, but I didn't know if that is what God was planning for me. That was when one of my other good friends, J.J., came up to me and encouraged with this simple verse from Psalms. He simply told me to, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart" Psalm 37:4 (ESV). When I heard that verse, I had the assurance that God knows what's in my heart and that I had presented these dreams and desires to Him. I would then feel led to having the "DTR" (define the relationship) moment with Jourd!
So when the DFO program had ended, a small group of us had decided to take a road trip out west and go camping in Colorado, as well as in the B-E-A-utiful Teton National Park. You probably could guess who I rode with on the trip! The same amazing girl who road tripped with me to KC! I had bought a spoon from her favorite restaurant, Chick-Fil-A, as a very Young Life way of asking Jourdyn to be my girlfriend. I also wrote a sweet letter explaining my feelings towards her and my desire to pursue her in a relationship.
As we road tripped through my home state in Colorado, I invited Jourdyn to hang out with tonight by the lake. After dinner we drove to a spot by the lake, and that was where the DTR happen! It was fairly obvious that she had the same feelings, and after a few awkward moments from Mr. Awkward Andy himself, Jourdyn and I started dating! The many dreams of the DFO summer had become a reality!
 |
| Holding our "DTR" spoon with T.J. in the Tetons during our road trip! |
But the dreaming did not stop there, Jourd and I lived about 9 hours part so we had to do the long-distance game in dating. We would have many dreams about where and when we would visit each other, and about what fun things we would do together. Eventually those weren't the only things we would dream of doing together! We would dream about what life would look like being together in the same place. We would dream of what it would be like to lead Young Life together. We even started dreaming about what it would be like to spend the rest of our lives together!! In all of the dreaming, we still had to bottle it all up and give it all to the Lord. The Bible says, " Do not worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand" Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT). This verse has helped us to instead of worrying about our dreams and if it is part of God's will for us, to continue to present by talking to Him about it!
In our attitude of presenting and thanking God for what He has done for us, He was able to bless us throughout our relationship! God made many of our dreams a reality because of His love for us! It was like when Ray Pettigrew from Discipleship Focus reminded us that we are the, "son and daughter of the Sovereign Creator who is good, who loves us and is in control."
 |
| Leaping for joy after Jourdyn said "yes" at Maroon Bells! Photo credit: Jack Milliard Find him on Instagram @jack.millard14 |
How crazy is that?! We have a God who loves us so much that when we stay close to Him, he desires to give us good gifts! Jourdyn and I continue to abide to Him, he wants us to keep dreaming together and bless us in those dreams!
 |
| Jourdyn and I starting our happy ever after! 12/28/2019 |
One last quote from, "The Marriage Journal" that is a proclamation for us in our marriage and our dreaming of big things. "Dream together and dream big! We have a good Father who delights in his children that love Him!" (62). So do not be afraid to dream, no matter how big or how small! Just remember that we have a God who loves us and can only do good in us. As for Jourdyn and I, we're going to keep on dreaming on, keep asking God to align our dreams with His, and watch Him do amazing things in our life!!
P.S. I would love to get to know you, encourage and pray for you, and keep the conversation going! I'm on social media with Instagram @andrew34browning, or on Twitter @classy1234_andy (I loved Anchorman when I got on Twitter so that's how it happened)! Give me a follow and you can DM me! You can also email me on abtallman34@gmail.com if you send it old school!
Comments
Post a Comment