Since I am out-of-work due to a recent "staff reduction" to "right size" the business... I have found myself in the unique position of mentoring others in the same predicament. It would have been nice if I could have kept my job to do this but God works in weird ways some times.
Unemployment and financial instability can cause serious stress! I know that this has happened to me in the past. This is actually the third time in 10 years that I have been without a job. The first time, I decided to leave the insurance world and return to the building industry. I had five weeks off. The second time, I was laid off due to the closing of my division with The Peachtree Companies and was given three months off. During that time, we uprooted from Illinois and relocated to Austin, TX... without any real leads for a job. Risky. Now, I was laid off due to over staffing in my territory. There were four of us covering the same geographical territory. It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that that just isn't very cost-effective!
I started thinking about how in this stage of life it is easy to fall into the mindset that God did this to me or that maybe I did something wrong. Both may be true or not at all. What I DO know is this:
1- God is in control.
2- God loves me.
3- I love God.
I am not sitting back waiting for something to happen and for some new opportunity to fall into my lap. I am actively seeking. However, In my seeking, I am relying on God to guide me to a new opportunity where my gifts, talents and skills can be used to have the best possible chance to do the most good that I can for Him. Whatever that may be.
Unemployment and financial instability can cause serious stress! I know that this has happened to me in the past. This is actually the third time in 10 years that I have been without a job. The first time, I decided to leave the insurance world and return to the building industry. I had five weeks off. The second time, I was laid off due to the closing of my division with The Peachtree Companies and was given three months off. During that time, we uprooted from Illinois and relocated to Austin, TX... without any real leads for a job. Risky. Now, I was laid off due to over staffing in my territory. There were four of us covering the same geographical territory. It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that that just isn't very cost-effective!
I started thinking about how in this stage of life it is easy to fall into the mindset that God did this to me or that maybe I did something wrong. Both may be true or not at all. What I DO know is this:
1- God is in control.
2- God loves me.
3- I love God.
I am not sitting back waiting for something to happen and for some new opportunity to fall into my lap. I am actively seeking. However, In my seeking, I am relying on God to guide me to a new opportunity where my gifts, talents and skills can be used to have the best possible chance to do the most good that I can for Him. Whatever that may be.
Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Matt 6:24-27)
True.
Worrying will not help and God is in control anyway... but that should motivate me to search for what God is doing in my life and to pursue that.
So I thought about babies. They are so content in being held and kissed and hugged. When my son was very little, maybe 9 months old, I liked to hold him, toss him up into the air a foot above my head and then catch him. I could tell by the look in his eyes and the flailing of his arms and legs that this made him nervous. He giggled nervously and was always glad to be back in the safety of my arms. I was always in control of the situation and would never let any harm come to him. I could always tell how much of this he could endure too.
I think that this is what happens to us in life sometimes. We get tossed up into the air and flail around thinking that we are going to be dropped. Those few moments that we are in the air, we feel helpless, out-of-control and terrified. However, if we are people who trust in God then we have nothing to worry about. He is in control of the situation. He will catch us. He knows how much we can endure.
If our trust is in money or relationships or prestige or stuff or whatever... then we may get dropped. We may have good reason to worry. In contrast, Jesus tells us, "I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matt 28:19-20) Don't worry- I am with you!
One last thing...
Sometimes when I am out for a walk with my son, I allow him to walk a few paces ahead of me. He loves it because he feels completely independent and "on his own." I love giving him that freedom. He chooses how fast to walk and where to walk and what to think about... but sometimes he falls down. Who knows why, really?!? Was this a high gravity area? Was the ground uneven? Did someone push him? Was the ground wet? Who knows? I know this. I am in control of the situation. Even though he may have scraped his knee and is now crying, I still love him and I am in control of the situation. He is not beyond my ability to help him in that situation.
The same is true of people who follow after Jesus. We walk and make decisions all day long but we are never beyond His reach.
Now, what if my son blamed me for his mishap? Did I cause him to fall? No. Did I skin his knee? No. Did I allow him to make his own decisions about where to go? Yes. Typically all my son wants from me in that moment is to hold him and tell him, "Everything will be 'ok' because I have the situation under control."
I think that sometimes we blame God for bad things that happen to us. God our Father loves us, His children, with even greater capacity than I can love my son and responds to our "scraped knees" the same way if we will let Him. I guess we could just push Him away and accuse Him for allowing us to make our own decisions. That is possible. However, God loves us and wants us to choose to respond to Him like a child who just needs to be held and loved; resting in His arms with Him telling us, "Everything will be 'ok' because I have the situation under control."
True.
Worrying will not help and God is in control anyway... but that should motivate me to search for what God is doing in my life and to pursue that.
So I thought about babies. They are so content in being held and kissed and hugged. When my son was very little, maybe 9 months old, I liked to hold him, toss him up into the air a foot above my head and then catch him. I could tell by the look in his eyes and the flailing of his arms and legs that this made him nervous. He giggled nervously and was always glad to be back in the safety of my arms. I was always in control of the situation and would never let any harm come to him. I could always tell how much of this he could endure too.
I think that this is what happens to us in life sometimes. We get tossed up into the air and flail around thinking that we are going to be dropped. Those few moments that we are in the air, we feel helpless, out-of-control and terrified. However, if we are people who trust in God then we have nothing to worry about. He is in control of the situation. He will catch us. He knows how much we can endure.
If our trust is in money or relationships or prestige or stuff or whatever... then we may get dropped. We may have good reason to worry. In contrast, Jesus tells us, "I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matt 28:19-20) Don't worry- I am with you!
One last thing...
Sometimes when I am out for a walk with my son, I allow him to walk a few paces ahead of me. He loves it because he feels completely independent and "on his own." I love giving him that freedom. He chooses how fast to walk and where to walk and what to think about... but sometimes he falls down. Who knows why, really?!? Was this a high gravity area? Was the ground uneven? Did someone push him? Was the ground wet? Who knows? I know this. I am in control of the situation. Even though he may have scraped his knee and is now crying, I still love him and I am in control of the situation. He is not beyond my ability to help him in that situation.
The same is true of people who follow after Jesus. We walk and make decisions all day long but we are never beyond His reach.
Now, what if my son blamed me for his mishap? Did I cause him to fall? No. Did I skin his knee? No. Did I allow him to make his own decisions about where to go? Yes. Typically all my son wants from me in that moment is to hold him and tell him, "Everything will be 'ok' because I have the situation under control."
I think that sometimes we blame God for bad things that happen to us. God our Father loves us, His children, with even greater capacity than I can love my son and responds to our "scraped knees" the same way if we will let Him. I guess we could just push Him away and accuse Him for allowing us to make our own decisions. That is possible. However, God loves us and wants us to choose to respond to Him like a child who just needs to be held and loved; resting in His arms with Him telling us, "Everything will be 'ok' because I have the situation under control."
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composed by
dave
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