Devotion Jen 8, 2020
09/01/20 09:53
Greetings!
I started thinking about these Midweek Devotions and when they started - 2006. And then I remember this is 2020 and think - Wow - that was a long time ago! I sat for a moment trying to remember exactly what was going on in my life during that time that made me begin these devotions and then in bits and pieces it began to come to me…… cause I'm getting old and that is how things come to me anymore!
I was working in a job I was really good at and had received a lot of accolades and atta-boys or I guess atta-girls or perhaps atta-persons would be best. I worked hard at my job as my family can attest ….. and I was also serving 2 churches which were over an hour from my house which ate up a lot of time just in travel along with the other things you have to do. I guess now would be the appropriate time to say the standard joke of ‘Preachers only work one hour on Sundays’ or I guess I can legitimately say I worked 2 hours on Sunday since I had two churches - chuckle, chuckle!
At any rate, here I was in this time consuming job that I was good at and I enjoyed but I had a boss who was the micro-manager of all time and but at the same time knew very little about what I actually did or how I actually did it or the content of the work or what it entailed or even what it was all about….. but she was one of those bottom line people and one of those what was in it for herself people and at the same time was trying to impress her bosses which made the job a wee bit stressful - well maybe more than a wee bit but I try and look at the bright side!
I could tell, my family could tell, my friends could tell that the stress of the work was starting to take its toll. I began to have health problems; I had a surgery that required a much longer recovery time than it should have; and there were some people hired to work in my department who were totally inadequate and frankly not suited for the jobs at all but who held some credentials that could be used for publicity purposes and who began to pretty much undermine this great program I had established and so with some great soul searching and some great faith in the “God will take care of you” I quit my job. Insert that little emoji with the shocked look on its face.
This was quite the trauma. My husband was working in another state; my kids were gone and it was just me and the dog. What was I going to do? I had worked literally all the time. I of course did the Wow! Now I can clean my house but that lasted about 3 days since it was just me and the dog living in the house. Now what?
I did have the 2 churches I was serving at the time but since I had been squeezing that in with the full time job the prep work for that was pretty organized and fell together quickly……
The dog and I developed this routine. Get up, eat breakfast, get coffee and walk up to my office on the top floor of the house. Surely there was something I could do in my office since this before the days of Facebook where I could have easily twittered away my time scrolling through everyone else’s lives.
Something in me remembered my days in college where every day I would put a pithy saying on my door - imagine if you can it was before computers and so I actually would hand write it! Insert again that little emoji with the shocked look on its face!
So I thought - maybe I can start thinking up pithy sayings again but make it about faith and then I can send it to my church members who have email - this wasn’t the stone age like my college years and there were computers and email in 2006……
And that is when it started…… I have often thought about trying to look back through emails because I never delete anything and seeing if I can find that inaugural devotion but then there is real stuff I need to do.
Reflection is a great way to begin a new year. Not making resolutions that we jokingly will laugh about in a couple months - but reflection on the last year and where God has been in our lives. You will be amazed how you begin to see how very involved in your life God actually is….. moments where at the time you thought things were falling apart but God allowed you to see the good in what was happening around you or how God was working and things could have been a whole lot worse than they were.
Bad things happen to us all - there are moments of turmoil and inconvenience and concern - but if you look back you will see how in the disorder God is there! And then you can start off the New Year a little bit closer and a little bit more willing to step out in faith and hear God’s call on your life!
Amen!
I started thinking about these Midweek Devotions and when they started - 2006. And then I remember this is 2020 and think - Wow - that was a long time ago! I sat for a moment trying to remember exactly what was going on in my life during that time that made me begin these devotions and then in bits and pieces it began to come to me…… cause I'm getting old and that is how things come to me anymore!
I was working in a job I was really good at and had received a lot of accolades and atta-boys or I guess atta-girls or perhaps atta-persons would be best. I worked hard at my job as my family can attest ….. and I was also serving 2 churches which were over an hour from my house which ate up a lot of time just in travel along with the other things you have to do. I guess now would be the appropriate time to say the standard joke of ‘Preachers only work one hour on Sundays’ or I guess I can legitimately say I worked 2 hours on Sunday since I had two churches - chuckle, chuckle!
At any rate, here I was in this time consuming job that I was good at and I enjoyed but I had a boss who was the micro-manager of all time and but at the same time knew very little about what I actually did or how I actually did it or the content of the work or what it entailed or even what it was all about….. but she was one of those bottom line people and one of those what was in it for herself people and at the same time was trying to impress her bosses which made the job a wee bit stressful - well maybe more than a wee bit but I try and look at the bright side!
I could tell, my family could tell, my friends could tell that the stress of the work was starting to take its toll. I began to have health problems; I had a surgery that required a much longer recovery time than it should have; and there were some people hired to work in my department who were totally inadequate and frankly not suited for the jobs at all but who held some credentials that could be used for publicity purposes and who began to pretty much undermine this great program I had established and so with some great soul searching and some great faith in the “God will take care of you” I quit my job. Insert that little emoji with the shocked look on its face.
This was quite the trauma. My husband was working in another state; my kids were gone and it was just me and the dog. What was I going to do? I had worked literally all the time. I of course did the Wow! Now I can clean my house but that lasted about 3 days since it was just me and the dog living in the house. Now what?
I did have the 2 churches I was serving at the time but since I had been squeezing that in with the full time job the prep work for that was pretty organized and fell together quickly……
The dog and I developed this routine. Get up, eat breakfast, get coffee and walk up to my office on the top floor of the house. Surely there was something I could do in my office since this before the days of Facebook where I could have easily twittered away my time scrolling through everyone else’s lives.
Something in me remembered my days in college where every day I would put a pithy saying on my door - imagine if you can it was before computers and so I actually would hand write it! Insert again that little emoji with the shocked look on its face!
So I thought - maybe I can start thinking up pithy sayings again but make it about faith and then I can send it to my church members who have email - this wasn’t the stone age like my college years and there were computers and email in 2006……
And that is when it started…… I have often thought about trying to look back through emails because I never delete anything and seeing if I can find that inaugural devotion but then there is real stuff I need to do.
Reflection is a great way to begin a new year. Not making resolutions that we jokingly will laugh about in a couple months - but reflection on the last year and where God has been in our lives. You will be amazed how you begin to see how very involved in your life God actually is….. moments where at the time you thought things were falling apart but God allowed you to see the good in what was happening around you or how God was working and things could have been a whole lot worse than they were.
Bad things happen to us all - there are moments of turmoil and inconvenience and concern - but if you look back you will see how in the disorder God is there! And then you can start off the New Year a little bit closer and a little bit more willing to step out in faith and hear God’s call on your life!
Amen!