This Past Year Has Been Quite A Learning Experience
August 31, 2010 was the second most painful day of my life. After 33 years of working through numerous recessions, strikes etc. I found my self out of a job. Losing a job has its casualties. It is like the loss of a loved one. I had worked at this place over half of my life. I was 19 when I started working. A way of life, dealing with adjustments in income, etc. Here I am at 52 years old starting again. Men do it all the time. Its not so easy for a woman, we are creatures of habit and we like things a certain way. It's hard when God comes in and allows a situation to end. This was the case here. It was time. There are lessons I have learned through this year. I will share in the following paragraghs.
NEVER put your heart and soul into anything that has no Eternal value. No job is supposed to control your life. When people that you work for use you up, even though you may be valuable, they will spit you out. Jobs come and jobs go. Build your hope on things eternal. I thought I made friends from work, but I hardly heard from anyone since this happened. There were people I talked to every month in the business and when I couldn't promote their music or couldn't do anything for them I never heard from them. I had contacted several of them asking for advice and I heard nothing. In the meantime I did hear from some of my old friends and co-workers, one of them encouraged me to do a facebook page. This connected me to friends and family that knew me most of my life, my neighbors and people I went to church with. They were the ones to comfort me. I recieved a few cards, a few phone calls, but nothing like I thought I would. This is goofy to even say this, but I kind of thought of myself as a modern George Bailey from "It's A Wonderful Life." One of my favorite movies. The reason being, that I had over the years trained many people give them a start in radio, some have gone places and others decided that radio wasn't for them. I had sacrificed many aspects of my life to do radio, including church. After being called in the ministry I was at odds with some of the things I had to do and I would ask God to help me. I didn't want to do this, but the job requires it... I thought that people would come to my aid. The aid came in ways that I never expected. Like a doctor agreeing to see me for free and writing my prescriptions as generic so that I would only have to pay ten dollars every three months. A precious woman of God wrote me a check to help with my bills, sowing a seed she called it, into my life. There were others who just lended an ear. When people began to run me down they came to my defense...
Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother, when the world crushes you down, Jesus picks you up, stands by you when the going gets rough. Some people are afraid of Matt. Of course I see things in him no one else sees. He is a kind man and when I called him and told him I lost my job, he was going to come and get me. His boss offered to come with him. It was a relief to him. When things are that stressful. It causes friction in the marriage. Lesson number two, no job needs to come between you and your marriage. All the money in the world is not worth it.
Another thing is to pray for guidence. When God closes a door, He will open another one. It is not always immediate. In my case I needed to rest and get some health issues under control first. I had endured so much verbal and emotional abuse from all the game playing that went on, I needed to heal. My father in law had told me don't even think about working for at least 90 days. I had to learn myself all over again. When you are in a stressful situation, you devolop a survivor mentallity. I had to heal. I am not finished healing yet, but I am well on my way. I linked up with people that appreciate my experience and talents. I do the broadcast for the church when it is my turn. Just enough to keep something I was interested in from the age of 12 as a hobby, but not the be-all and end-all.
Ask God to order your steps, so that you won't step in quicksand. I was contacted by someone and when the deal went down it was too good to be true. I wasn't ready for it. They were using me as a tool for revenge and wanted the information I could give them. They didn't want me. At first I was excited that someone wanted my knowlegde and experience, I have to admit I was flattered, but then as things progressed. I saw it for what it was. I came home and cried, for days because I thought they wanted me. This was like ripping a scab off of a wound. Be careful. In your quest to be useful and needed, you may end up being used in ways you didn't intend. I pray this way. "God, when the right door opens, give me the sense to walk though it. Let me know if it is the door that I am supposed to walk through."
This year has been a learning experience and a trying of my faith. I had to believe that it is God, not man, that causes doors to open and close.There are anxious moments, when the bank account gets overdrawn and there are unexpected bills, like having to get tires for the car or something . I just have to believe that God knows and see our situation. He said to cast our care on Him because He cares for us. Hopefully I have learned this to Trust in the Lord and lean not unto my own understanding, in ALL of my ways acknowledge the Lord and He will direct my path.
NEVER put your heart and soul into anything that has no Eternal value. No job is supposed to control your life. When people that you work for use you up, even though you may be valuable, they will spit you out. Jobs come and jobs go. Build your hope on things eternal. I thought I made friends from work, but I hardly heard from anyone since this happened. There were people I talked to every month in the business and when I couldn't promote their music or couldn't do anything for them I never heard from them. I had contacted several of them asking for advice and I heard nothing. In the meantime I did hear from some of my old friends and co-workers, one of them encouraged me to do a facebook page. This connected me to friends and family that knew me most of my life, my neighbors and people I went to church with. They were the ones to comfort me. I recieved a few cards, a few phone calls, but nothing like I thought I would. This is goofy to even say this, but I kind of thought of myself as a modern George Bailey from "It's A Wonderful Life." One of my favorite movies. The reason being, that I had over the years trained many people give them a start in radio, some have gone places and others decided that radio wasn't for them. I had sacrificed many aspects of my life to do radio, including church. After being called in the ministry I was at odds with some of the things I had to do and I would ask God to help me. I didn't want to do this, but the job requires it... I thought that people would come to my aid. The aid came in ways that I never expected. Like a doctor agreeing to see me for free and writing my prescriptions as generic so that I would only have to pay ten dollars every three months. A precious woman of God wrote me a check to help with my bills, sowing a seed she called it, into my life. There were others who just lended an ear. When people began to run me down they came to my defense...
Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother, when the world crushes you down, Jesus picks you up, stands by you when the going gets rough. Some people are afraid of Matt. Of course I see things in him no one else sees. He is a kind man and when I called him and told him I lost my job, he was going to come and get me. His boss offered to come with him. It was a relief to him. When things are that stressful. It causes friction in the marriage. Lesson number two, no job needs to come between you and your marriage. All the money in the world is not worth it.
Another thing is to pray for guidence. When God closes a door, He will open another one. It is not always immediate. In my case I needed to rest and get some health issues under control first. I had endured so much verbal and emotional abuse from all the game playing that went on, I needed to heal. My father in law had told me don't even think about working for at least 90 days. I had to learn myself all over again. When you are in a stressful situation, you devolop a survivor mentallity. I had to heal. I am not finished healing yet, but I am well on my way. I linked up with people that appreciate my experience and talents. I do the broadcast for the church when it is my turn. Just enough to keep something I was interested in from the age of 12 as a hobby, but not the be-all and end-all.
Ask God to order your steps, so that you won't step in quicksand. I was contacted by someone and when the deal went down it was too good to be true. I wasn't ready for it. They were using me as a tool for revenge and wanted the information I could give them. They didn't want me. At first I was excited that someone wanted my knowlegde and experience, I have to admit I was flattered, but then as things progressed. I saw it for what it was. I came home and cried, for days because I thought they wanted me. This was like ripping a scab off of a wound. Be careful. In your quest to be useful and needed, you may end up being used in ways you didn't intend. I pray this way. "God, when the right door opens, give me the sense to walk though it. Let me know if it is the door that I am supposed to walk through."
This year has been a learning experience and a trying of my faith. I had to believe that it is God, not man, that causes doors to open and close.There are anxious moments, when the bank account gets overdrawn and there are unexpected bills, like having to get tires for the car or something . I just have to believe that God knows and see our situation. He said to cast our care on Him because He cares for us. Hopefully I have learned this to Trust in the Lord and lean not unto my own understanding, in ALL of my ways acknowledge the Lord and He will direct my path.
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