Hello and welcome back! I appreciate you taking the time out to check out this post, I pray it blesses, encourages and edifies you:
As you can see from the title this post is written mainly as a self-reflective, introspective observation. As I mentioned in my return post, I was in the midst of a transition that ultimately led me to put a pause on the blog. It was a very time consuming, physically daunting and faith-stretching time, and it revolved around shifting from one job to the next. My previous job was a very physical one, and we shifted into a 14-hour, 6 day a week schedule that left little gas in the tank. I had to practice what I preached so to speak and encourage myself in the Lord often.
It was far from easy, staying encouraged and positive while applying for other jobs. I waited desperately for a return call or email from places I applied to, but all was quiet. I reasoned with myself that surely a slight decrease in pay would be worth the benefit of a normal schedule, but that would’ve been a step back. As tempting as it was to go with what would be easy, I had to press on with the search and not settle, and it helped me to remain hopeful, not in myself but in God. He provided for me in the past and I knew He would again, and despite how it looked I held out hope.
Waking up was dreadful, and the repetitive cycle was getting to me, and I caught myself falling into old mental habits that would cause me to spiral into depression. Yes, I’d eventually snap out of these depressive funks, but it was getting harder and harder to find a reason to the longer I had to wait to hear back from someone. Sermons were a bit helpful, but ultimately, I needed to see the Word come to fruition in my particular situation. Deeper than that, I wanted a reason not to go back to comfort sins or find things outside of the will of God to have some form of reprieve. I didn’t want to do what was right, I wanted to do what was easy.
Yet the Lord reminded me of times past when I did that very thing, and how it only hindered my walk, my faith, and most importantly, our relationship. So, I fought, fell, got back up, fought again. The warfare was intense, but I took it as a sign that this thing I was praying and fasting for would be worth it…lo and behold it was. What I learned in that waiting experience, in that crushing season, was that God is faithful, even when we are not. I was reminded that blessings aren’t earned, but given out of the goodness of His heart, and that the Lord always comes through. Maybe not on our timetable, but always on time. I learned a lot during that time period, as moving from one job to the next was only 1 of 3 things shifting during that time, but I’ll get into the other two in another post.
That being said I started my new job on January 3rd of this year, 2025 and haven’t looked back since. I’m learning a lot, and finding some things out about myself that I know will take the help and strength of the Lord to work on -like my patience for instance- but a key takeaway I’d like to leave you with is this: Do what is right, not what is easy. This life we live, this road we walk, this faith we adhere to is far from easy. If this were easy, everyone would do it. Yet what’s easy isn’t always what’s worth it. The crushing is far from comfortable, but it produces the oil you need for your purpose. The stretching of your faith is to help build capacity for what the Lord has in store for you. Lastly, we cannot overcome internal or external conflict the right way in our own strength, but the Lord is our ever present and well proven help in trouble.
Rnt with JB 