Ya’ll, the craziest thing happened to me the last couple of
days! It was such a God thing and I have
to share! (Can you sense my excitement
with all of my exclamation points?!) I
believe that I have shared my unemployment struggles with the blog before. I’ll recap if not. In February of this year, I was laid off
pretty unexpectedly. Yes, it rocked my
world but God precisely planned a bible study for me that started the day I was
told I would be laid off. It helped me
get through the fear and the unknown of that time. Since then I have been looking for work but
have not had any luck. About a month
ago, I got news of a position that I was interested in. I emailed the contact and she said she would
talk to her manager. It sounded
promising, but I didn’t have the feeling like “this is it”.
Skipping the mediocre part of the story, I thought I did
well with the interview and felt like I could definitely handle the position,
but I still didn’t have that peace about it.
The manager told me she would get back with me in 2-3 weeks with a
response. Ok, that was the longest 3
weeks ever!!! During that time, I feel
like I grew desperate. Like, that has
been the only job I have interviewed with during this time and what if that’s
it?! Or EVERYONE is asking me “what am I
doing” or “have you heard anything from anyone?!” I know they are concerned but it’s really
annoying and makes me panic a little when people put so much emphasis on
it. God has been providing for us
financially, even more than if I would have been working, so we aren’t worried
about that. It’s just that I enjoy
working and the feeling I get from being able to provide for my family and
others in need. Well, that wasn’t a
tangent I was expecting but we’ll roll with it!
: )
So, Friday, I woke up early and did my bible study. It was over waiting on God with hope,
specifically having me search the bible for verses dealing with waiting and
making me write down what my expectations are of a request we have for God so
we can “Get ready to watch God move.” I
wrote what my expectations are for a job, not really even thinking about the
job I interviewed for. Being close to
home (I was spoiled with a 10 minutes commute with my previous job) and a
position that has a flexible schedule were my two main requests. I finished the study and got the kids ready
for school. On my way home, **at a red
light** I read my email rejection letter… “You have great qualifications but we
are pursuing another candidate for this role”.
My heart sank. I mean, this role
was perfect for me, right?!
Then, I was reminded of the study I did that morning about
waiting on God and that gave me hope.
The job was 30 minutes away, under conditions that I wasn’t 100% sure of
anyway so to be completely honest, it wasn’t what I truly wanted. Without that reminder, the devil could’ve
used that to fuel my rejection, my angst about being home and kept that playing
like a broken record of destruction and disappointment. Then when I got home, I
read a devotional comment from a friend at church and it went right along with
what I needed to hear. “He strengthens
us to face the defeat we have suffered, to work through the grief we have, to
over come the depression we are in, whatever the circumstance we are in He is
our strength and out hope.” Does it stop
there?! Nope!! Another friend’s facebook post about “Do not
give up” quoting 2 Corinthians 12:9, a Proverbs31 devotional telling us to call
out to God because he hears us and nothing is too trivial for him, a message
from the local Christian radio station that the Lord will fight for us
and a few more. All of it came together at
that specific time to make it so much easier to accept the rejection, defeat
and discontent of that day.
I have no idea where this time is taking me but I do know
that God’s got it under control. He’s
showing me things that I wouldn’t have seen in my “fast paced” life
before. He’s rebuilding the relationship
that I lost and he’s showing me that he is here, right now and there’s nothing
more important than that! I feel like
he’s intentionally slowing my life down and getting it back in order and I am
so excited about that. It’s sad that we
have to go through hard times to reach out to God, but am so glad that when we
reach out He is there. Thank you Jesus!
“I have told you these
things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 (NIV)
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