The Lord is Good, Let All the Earth Rejoice!

Until May of this year I was working as a Teacher's Assistant. When the school year ended I was offered a contract for the next school year but felt distinctly that the Lord did not want me to sign it. Though I had prayed about it and felt confident of what the Lord wanted, I struggled to follow through with resigning. I had talked to my supervisor about the possibility and she had recommended that I not resign until the end of summer so that I would have insurance coverage as long as possible. This made practical sense, but I knew that this practical route was not the same as following the Lord in faith believing that He would take care of me. I shared with the Lord that I would feel better able to resign if I knew that I had insurance coverage some how. Within that week my parents insurance called us to let us know that if desired, they would extended my insurance coverage until my 26th birthday in November. At that, I knew that the Lord had answered and I submitted a letter of resignation to my supervisor. In the months since then I have been looking for a job. Some weeks more faithfully than others. I have submitted resume after resume, done interview after interview, and requested application after application all to no avail. But recently my uncle called me to inform me that the Lowes in our area was hiring. I went online and filled out the application. Within a couple of days I was contacted for an interview and as of Friday morning I am a Lowes employee! What's more amazing is that though I hold a part-time position, Lowes offers all staff a full benefits package. Which means that The Lord perfectly arranged things so that when my parents insurance runs out on November 14th my Lowes insurance will kick in. That is more than enough to draw my eyes heavenward in gratitude, but in addition Lowes offers tuition reimbursement and the option of transferring between store locations both of which are particularly important to me given that I am in the middle of applying to law school. In all the time that I have been looking for a job never could I have arranged these details or foreseen their possibility. Only the all-knowing, all-powerful, amazing God of love that we serve is capable of such mercies. He is trustworthy and greatly to be praised!

Self Preservation to Brave Determination

"We are called to move from self preservation to brave determination"

Beth Moore

I am not one who watches a lot of TV. In fact, for the most part I don't even have access to a TV, a characteristic of my life that I enjoy when I am surrounded by people. But recently the Lord has provided me with some house sitting jobs as a means of income, these homes usually come with two things: TVs and a lot of alone time. Sometimes the issue is about using good judgement as to what I am watching, but more often for me the challenge is to turn it off at all. The presence of a TV becomes an instant defense against aloneness. Self preservation kicks in and entertainment becomes my distracting companion. Ironically, this companion chosen to distract me from being alone, draws me into greater alonenss as I find myself ignoring calls from friends and offers of outings. I find myself up late, out of bed late, tired, and generally unproductive. It occurred to me as I thought about this this morning that this is the result of so many of our efforts at self preservation. Self preservation arises in us when we feel threatened, fearful, insecure, or vulnerable and give into those feelings. In this world the ability to survive at the expense of hardened hearts is celebrated. But the Lord calls us to something more powerful and freeing and frightening than that. He calls us to admit those feelings and rest in his love. He does not leave us without armor, but nor does He lie to us and tell us that the source of that armor is internal strength. In fact, He says just the opposite. He says, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." He says, "In my strength your weakness is made perfect." He says, "Come to me and you shall walk and not grow weary." And He says, "Do not fear! For I am with you!" Aloneness? There is no such thing for a daughter or son of the most high God. But strength comes only from him; all other types of strength are counterfeit and leave us empty and hard hearted. We must turn to him instead of our methods of self preservation with our weakness. We must take heart knowing that we are not alone! Knowing that we are loved. We have so many entertaining diversions available to us to drown out our fears, but if we take them up on their offer we will never be free. If however, we turn to our faithful Father then we are free indeed! So I pray for you and for me, that we move from self preservation to brave determination in the Lord.