To understand Lynn Stack, you have to watch her cook.

She doesn’t just make a breakfast burrito, or macaroni and cheese or lasagna.

No.

Lynn makes a breakfast burrito filled with happiness and vegetables I can’t even name. And she make macaroni and cheese that tastes like heaven and noodles and has bubbly cheesy goodness on the top. And, her lasagna is more awesome than sauce.

Lynn doesn’t worry about measuring, or specific ingredients, or cook times on some recipe card. She just has faith that everything will come together and that she’ll have the right things in her fridge at any given moment to make the best dinner ever.

She’s always right.

That’s how she looks at people too.

She never judges them, or worries that something isn’t exactly the way it should be. She just knows that between God and their core, everything you need to make the best person ever is already right in front of you.

That’s how she’s always looked at me.

I’ve never seen an ounce of doubt in her eyes. She let me help with our church youth group before she even knew my last name. She had faith in my lessons even before I had faith in them myself. And she’s pushed me to do things (like plan a mission trip) that I wouldn’t have leaped into before I met her.

Which is why leaving her is going to suck so bad.

I recently was offered and accepted a job as a paid part-time youth leader at a church in Bolingbrook. And I’m happier than I could ever be ever about it. The church is AMAZING, the position feels like a calling, and I’m excited to grow with God in this area of my life.

But, because the job is kind of far, I’m planning to move in with my best friend ever April in Naperville and then commute between the youth leader job and my newspaper job in Crystal Lake. I know that Bolingbrook isn’t really THAT far from Woodstock, but I also know that I’m not going to get to see Lynn nearly as much as I’d like.

The irony is, of course, that without her faith in me, I never would have gotten the job in the first place. She wrote me a letter of recommendation, and prayed for me and was nothing but “Congratulations” when she found out I’d accepted.

She tells me I’m going to do great things and change lives and be awesome.

And because she believes it, I kind of believe it too.

Thank you for that Lynn.

Seriously. Thank. You.

(And don’t feel weird about sending me on my way with some macaroni and cheese).