Live Small, Do Big

by Lauren Hollier

Mine and Chase’s story started well before we fully surrendered our lives to Christ.

We both grew up in a Catholic church and were saved, but we continued to live for ourselves and for the worldly things we thought would make us happy. 

We got married in 2010 with a dream of owning land, cattle, a beautiful home, and everything that came along with that. We also did not want any debt doing it. So this is where it all began. 

 In 2013, when I was 6 months pregnant with our first, Quinn, we sold our house and started the process of saving and living below our means in order to get the “dream” we were both after. We changed our spending habits and created a strict budget. 

Our first look at what God was capable of showed up just one month later.

I was 35 weeks, developed Pre-eclampsia, and had to be induced the following day. Even though it was my body’s first time going through labor, it lasted only 6.5 hours. Even though Quinn was only 35 weeks, she was born healthy, pink, and breathing like a champ. She was discharged home on day 2, weighing only 4 lbs 8oz, but never spent a night in the NICU. That was God. And we knew it.

In 2014, while pregnant with our second, Charlotte, God led us to Orangefield to a perfect house in the perfect neighborhood. It was there that God began to show up for us in even bigger ways.

 In May 2015, at only 3 months old, Charlotte developed Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP). This is a platelet disorder that caused her to destroy her own platelets. Over the next several months, we spent a total of two weeks admitted to Texas Children’s Hospital. She had 2 separate bone marrow aspiration and biopsies, dozens of clinic visits, and countless lab draws. We met our out of pocket max by her second admission and did not have to pay another penny for her care for the rest of that year.

 During this time, we began to really lean on God and His plans for Charlotte. 

In December, at 10 months old, she was healed.

That was God.
The diagnosis, the healing, the money.

In March of 2016, 3 months after Charlotte was healed from ITP, we were invited to Bridge Point by John and Stacy Trimble for a baby dedication. We have been going Bridge Point ever since. 

Chase and I started really getting plugged in, and began investing in our church home.

 That same year, we unexpectedly found out we were pregnant, but ended up having a miscarriage around 15 weeks. After learning that we could rely on God to give us peace and comfort in our trials, we both leaned into Him even more. 

In the years since that first miscarriage, we lost another baby, built our dream home, and continued to grow in our walk with Christ.

We have both been baptized, and as a family, we have grown hungry for God and the plans He has for us.
God had been walking with us through every struggle and victory,
but we knew that He still had more planned for us.

 In 2018, we did it! We arrived at our dream. We moved into our “forever” home. We decided, at that point, to keep saving and living on a strict budget in order to pay off our new home in record time.

Yet, it all felt hevel.

 Hevel is a Hebrew word that means vapor, smoke, chasing after the wind or shadows.
It was all hevel-the house, the land, the saving.
It was smoke that could be swept away at any moment.
It was a personal dream and goal that left us indifferent. 

 We knew then that God was preparing us to let it all go.

 In 2021, my word for the year was “yield”, and God began speaking loudly to Chase and I about selling everything. Our hearts were being tugged and pulled towards something else, we just didn’t know what yet. We obeyed and watched as everything fell into place. We left our dream home and land to live smaller. 

About a week into moving, our house was nowhere close to being settled, but our hearts were. 
We both felt a calming peace-we knew we did the right thing.

For all those years that we spent pulling away from the world to live a dream we thought we wanted, God was using it to prepare us for something even bigger.

We were pulling away from the world financially, but God was pulling us away spiritually. 
We now have options we would have never had otherwise, 
and He is in control of what happens from here.

So, now what is next?

We know that we want to see our money grow to a place where we reach an even grander level of financial freedom. To a place where we can travel more, both on missions and as a family. 
And to a place where we can give more of what we have away.

 We are choosing to live SMALL so we can give and grow BIG.

 Since making the decision to live smaller, Chase has gone on a mission trip to Tanzania to build water wells with Wells of Hope. Together, we have gone to Kenya with Be the Need to help a Soweto slum. 
We have another trip with Be the Need planned with our girls for later this year. 

Today, we are investing in what God has provided us with,
listening to His direction on how to grow,
and giving wherever he guides us. 

God had to pull us away from the world materialistically to prepare us to pull away spiritually as well.
He pulled us away from a material dream, changed our hearts, and is giving us new dreams.
All the years of preparation was never really about our dream, but was about how we changed along the way.

As a family we learned to remain steady.
We saved steadily.
We sought Him steadily.
We now can obey and give steadily.

When you remain faithful, He is faithful to guide and provide. 

He has taken what we thought we wanted and has done far more abundant things than we ever imagined.
He has brought us to a place of freedom where we can say, Here I am. Send me.

We are excited and expectant for where the Lord will call us next. 

LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
Isaiah 25:1