An IRS Letter and the Kindness of God

Months earlier, I had stepped away from a pastoral role I had held for fifteen years. When I shared that transition in a special announcement: A Time for Every Purpose,” I knew one beautiful season of ministry was ending. I also knew the calling to teach God’s Word, make disciples, and help people grow in their faith had not ended–the role changed but the calling remained.

At the time, I kept returning to Hebrews 2:8–9. We do not yet see everything, “but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus.” The map was fuzzy. Jesus was not. So I tried to keep my eyes on Him and do the next thing.

Write the study. Teach the lesson. Invite people to gather. Record the message. Encourage the person in front of me. Listen when an idea began pressing on my heart, pray about it, and take the next step without pretending I knew exactly where it would lead.

Over time, Dwelling Richly began growing beyond the boundaries of my previous ministry role. Bible study groups gathered in other cities and states. People joined online. New leaders stepped forward. Opportunities opened for mentoring, teaching, discipleship training, outreach, workshops, gatherings, and new resources.

Eventually, one of those next steps was forming Dwelling Richly as a nonprofit ministry. And that next step came with paperwork….

That step came after “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble,” where I wrote about the joy and anticipation I feel when people gather around God’s Word. That post began playfully with Michael Buffer, a chrome microphone, a roaring crowd, and the imagined announcement: “LET’S. GET. READY TO DWELLLLLLL!”

I still laugh when I picture it. But beneath all that energy was something deeper.

I wrote about Jeremiah’s description of God’s Word as a burning fire shut up in his bones. That language still feels true to me. I love opening Scripture with people. I love watching someone understand a passage more clearly, ask a thoughtful question, find her voice, or recognize that she can help someone else grow too. I feel compelled to teach, write, share, and invite people to dwell in God’s Word together.

The fire is real. So are the doubts. Calling and confidence are not always the same thing. I can feel deeply compelled to continue and still wonder whether I am equipped for everything the work now requires. I can teach a room full of people with great joy and then stare at an unfamiliar government form wondering how I became the person responsible for completing it.

I know how to study, write, teach, listen, encourage, and gather people around an open Bible. I am still learning how to build the structure that can faithfully support all of that. Perhaps that is why the application affected me so strongly. It was never only about paperwork.
It pressed directly on a question beneath much of this journey:

Can I carry what God appears to be placing in front of me?

There was a lot of doubt behind that question and it was an IRS form that really brought those doubts to the surface.
The Form 1023 application required detailed answers about our ministry structure, governance, finances, activities, policies, and future plans. Much of the terminology was unfamiliar to me. I researched, read instructions, checked my answers, lost progress, started sections again, and glanced occasionally at the little “We’re here to help!” chatbot.
Like, really? Are you, though? As I worked, I noticed what was happening inside me…

“I’m probably doing this wrong.”
“What if I miss something important?”
“I don’t know enough.”
“I should be able to handle this.”

Those thoughts became the foundation for another post, “I Should Be Able to Handle This.” The experience helped me understand why so many sincere Christians hesitate when they have an opportunity to disciple someone else. They think they need to know more first. They imagine they should feel stronger, more confident, or more spiritually mature. They assume disciple-making belongs to pastors, teachers, or people who seem far more qualified.

I know that feeling.

I did not become qualified to complete the application and then begin it confidently. I became more capable as I worked through it one section, page, and question at a time. Discipleship often works much the same way.

We pray. We open the Bible. We answer a question as well as we can. We admit when we do not know something. We seek wisdom. We encourage someone to take the next step while we are still learning to take our own. Eventually, after a very long day, I submitted the application.
Then I prepared to wait.

From everything I had read, I expected the process to take at least another three or four months. The IRS might request clarification, ask for additional documents, or send another formidable list of questions.
Instead, the determination letter arrived less than a month later.

I had been second-guessing myself again. Ugh. I was not questioning whether God’s Word matters or whether discipleship is worth giving my life to. I knew those things. I was questioning myself.

Can I lead this responsibly?
Can I learn everything I need to learn?
Can I build the necessary structure without losing the personal, relational heart of the ministry?
Am I capable of carrying the administrative weight that comes with the work I love?

And beneath those questions was another one I have brought before the Lord more than once:

Is this truly the next season You are asking me to walk into?
I did not receive a dramatic answer I just kept on with my studies for the next Bible study. Just do the next thing. Even if I cannot do this other stuff I can do what I do…pray, write, study, write some more, and I tried just once again to place the questions into God’s hands, and. let. them. go.

Then the next day, the letter came.

I want to be thoughtful about how I understand this.

An IRS determination letter cannot establish a calling from God. Far from it.
It does not guarantee that every future decision will be easy or that the ministry will grow to a particular size. It certainly does not mean I will never second-guess myself again. Faithfulness to Christ and His Word will always matter more than organizational recognition.

Still, ordinary things can carry extraordinary tenderness.

This letter answered a specific prayer. It removed a significant administrative hurdle. It allows Dwelling Richly to receive tax-deductible contributions and gives us a stronger foundation for the ministry ahead. And it arrived much sooner than expected, one day after I had been pouring out my uncertainty to God.

I received it as kindness, as divine relief. If God could reach my doubt-tossed heart and hug it through an IRS letter I can relax with joyful tears and know that while this did not give me the complete map or promise an easy road, it gave me encouragement for the next step…

I happened to be at the community center in our neighborhood when I opened the letter. My friend Fae just so happened to be nearby splashing like a teenager on summer break in the swimming with her grandsons. Fae has been such a sweet friend and faithful prayer warrior. She has encouraged me, prayed for me, joined the summer Chill study, and cared about what God is doing through Dwelling Richly.

Once I could see through my tears well enough to get out of the car, I walked over to the pool. I just had to share this happy news and get the words and relief and joy out from my heart to someone else. She was floating on a pool noodle while her grandsons splashed and played around her. I sat down crisscross applesauce at the edge of the pool, still crying, and said:

“First of all, these are happy tears.”

Then I told her the news…through those tears and smiling as she bobbed in the water with two grandsons splashing up and around her. The younger looked at me with the concern and curiosity of children who had just discovered a grown woman crying beside the swimming pool.

“Wait,” one of them asked. “Did she win a million dollars or something?”

No, I did not win a million dollars. But at that moment, it felt pretty big.

There was something especially beautiful about sharing the news immediately with someone who had prayed with me through the process. I did not have to carry the joy alone. Before there was an official announcement, a Reel, a fundraising update, or a carefully written explanation, there was simply a friend on a pool noodle, two curious grandsons, and me sitting at the edge of the pool trying to explain federal nonprofit recognition through happy tears.

It was wonderfully ordinary.
And it was sacred. (Thank you, Fae.)

I had prepared myself to wait another three or four months, but I do not want the lesson of this story to become, “Trust God, and your answer will arrive tomorrow.” Sometimes waiting is long and the answer looks different from what we hoped and sometimes does God ask us to continue without giving us the reassurance we would prefer.

His kindness is not limited to the moment the answer arrives. It was present while I completed that tedious application. It was present through the people who prayed, encouraged, and financially supported Dwelling Richly even before we had received this determination. (Thank you!)

It was present when the future remained unclear and in my sometimes cloudy, doubt-filled mind. God’s kindness was there in every person who did open a Bible, join a study, listen to a message, share with a friend or attend a gathering. It was present in the desire God continued to sustain in me—to write, teach, disciple, and keep gathering people around His Word even when I felt unsure about everything surrounding that work.

The letter helped me recognize a kindness that had been carrying me all along.

Receiving the determination letter does not complete the mission. In many ways, it gives us a stronger foundation from which to continue it. Dwelling Richly exists to disciple believers to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and to let the Word of Christ dwell in them richly.

We are doing that through Bible studies, devotionals, podcasts, videos, workshops, mentoring, gatherings, discipleship training, and ordinary conversations around open Bibles. The mission is not simply to create more Christian content. We want to help people know God through His Word, live what they are learning, and become equipped to help someone else follow Jesus.

A participant becomes an encourager.
An encourager becomes a mentor.
A mentor sits beside someone else, opens the Bible, and says, “Let’s learn together.”
That person grows and eventually turns toward someone else. That is discipleship multiplying.

The nonprofit determination gives us the structure to develop more biblical resources, train disciple-makers, support leaders, offer local and online groups, host gatherings, and make materials accessible to people who may not otherwise be able to receive them.

There is still a great deal to learn and do.
But today, I am pausing to celebrate.

Maybe you have been along since the beginning. Maybe you’re just now seeing the mission. You can learn more about Dwelling Richly and what saying “Yes, let’s do this!” looks like. Thank you to those who gave before we could promise it would be a tax write-off. Thank you to you who have prayed and shared and believed in me and what I (weakly) tried to explain about what God nudged me to do. I’ll just keep on saying yes to Him and I am inviting you to do the same. Say yes with me. Read about saying Yes here.