Exodus 14:10-14
As Pharaoh approached,
the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after
them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t
we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’?
It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in
the desert!” Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
I've applied for what I think is a fair number of jobs. Yet, no one has called me to arrange an interview or talk to clarify my appplication. Sometimes, my mind will wander and lead me to ask why is it that I'm not being called. It's a bit unnerving and self-doubts start to creep in when I consider myself to be a great employee with amazing capabilities. (Self praise, no doubt, but I truly believe that I am superb in what I do in marketing)
Yet, I'm not panic stricken nor anxious simply because I know that time to God is. It is but a blink of an eye and in the greater scheme of my life, it's only a phase in a long working period. So while I can endure the stress free days, days with lunch appointments and even aimless days of doing nothing but laze at home because the sun is simply too hot to leave the home. Life will just be passing days untill God opens the door for my next employment.
With some confidence, I know that there's nothing I can do to force open an interview or a job offer. I know for a fact that I need to learn how to be standing still, even in the face of uncertainties. But isn't life always like this for us? We can do any and everything but it is the Lord who will deliver us from life. It is just the actual moment of learning to stand still in the face of uncertainties that unnerves us. Such is the shallow nature of our faith.
When I come out of this unemployment phase, I hope to be able to look back and recognise how childish the paranoia I had, and how amazing the hand of God is to instrument the next steps of my career. In the meantime, all I do is be hopeful and wait in obedience without giving my head many chances to run wild in panic.
My God is mighty to save!
M.
19 February 2014
17 February 2014
Time and Stewardship
1 Peter 4:10
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
Now that I'm jobless, I've tons of time.
The conundrum that one has when working is the lack of personal time, but availability of money. So you have the ability to afford things but sadly, time to enjoy it is limited to the weekends and the annual leave. The opposite applies when one is not working; you have the ability to enjoy the time at hand, but limited to the money available.
I must say that I've enjoyed the freedom of not working. The unnerving thing is the worry of when I'll eventually find a job that pays me what I was last worth. Now, that is quite a challenge because it is always easier to find a lower salary job at my stage of the career.
In the many hours that I have, I realised that it is so easy to slack off. For example, I can literally watch TV, surf the net to watch anime or comedies, read an article or two and simply not do anything productive for the whole day. I shock myself at how I can afford to stay at home the whole day without feeling aimless and that makes me only realise how terrible a steward of the time I'm given.
With the days that I live, I would dread to use it all on working in the rat race found in the corporate world. Yet, I cannot possibly use this current phase and waste all the days given to me.
Peter tells the church in this chapter that the end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.
Time for me to really be a bit less slack and more sober and pray. For such a time like this, I should be make better use of the time so I can be accountable to God for the time He has given me in this phase of unemployment.
M.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
Now that I'm jobless, I've tons of time.
The conundrum that one has when working is the lack of personal time, but availability of money. So you have the ability to afford things but sadly, time to enjoy it is limited to the weekends and the annual leave. The opposite applies when one is not working; you have the ability to enjoy the time at hand, but limited to the money available.
I must say that I've enjoyed the freedom of not working. The unnerving thing is the worry of when I'll eventually find a job that pays me what I was last worth. Now, that is quite a challenge because it is always easier to find a lower salary job at my stage of the career.
In the many hours that I have, I realised that it is so easy to slack off. For example, I can literally watch TV, surf the net to watch anime or comedies, read an article or two and simply not do anything productive for the whole day. I shock myself at how I can afford to stay at home the whole day without feeling aimless and that makes me only realise how terrible a steward of the time I'm given.
With the days that I live, I would dread to use it all on working in the rat race found in the corporate world. Yet, I cannot possibly use this current phase and waste all the days given to me.
Peter tells the church in this chapter that the end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.
Time for me to really be a bit less slack and more sober and pray. For such a time like this, I should be make better use of the time so I can be accountable to God for the time He has given me in this phase of unemployment.
M.
