“Accept the way God does things, for who can straighten what He has made crooked? Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God.” Ecclesiastes 7:13,14
“Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon: the thought of Him to whom that prayer goes will purify and correct the desire.”
“Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon: the thought of Him to whom that prayer goes will purify and correct the desire.”
George MacDonald
Today marks 13 months and 13 days of unemployment. Prior to this benchmark, my titles have included:
Grocery bagger, construction laborer, car wash manager, gas station attendant, firefighter (volunteer), photo lab technician, wedding photographer, sales clerk, stone setter, sandblaster, designer, shop foreman, diner waiter, hotel bellhop, headmaster, teacher, artist, songwriter, grand jury foreman (federal), adjunct, and unemployed.
I have made tombstones and baptistery sculpture, led small study groups in back rooms and performed for large groups on an island in the Amazon. These are the things I have pondered over this 13/13 period as I have pursued employment. I have applied for jobs that range from Toilet Cleaner to University Lecturer*, to no avail. Then, one day, the Lord said to me, “Apart from Me, you can do No thing.” Nothing.
Grocery bagger, construction laborer, car wash manager, gas station attendant, firefighter (volunteer), photo lab technician, wedding photographer, sales clerk, stone setter, sandblaster, designer, shop foreman, diner waiter, hotel bellhop, headmaster, teacher, artist, songwriter, grand jury foreman (federal), adjunct, and unemployed.
I have made tombstones and baptistery sculpture, led small study groups in back rooms and performed for large groups on an island in the Amazon. These are the things I have pondered over this 13/13 period as I have pursued employment. I have applied for jobs that range from Toilet Cleaner to University Lecturer*, to no avail. Then, one day, the Lord said to me, “Apart from Me, you can do No thing.” Nothing.
There are vines growing in the trees beside our deck, Muscadine, I think. Vine branches are clingy. They are not particular. These branches have attached themselves to a Dogwood, Sycamore, Poplar. Wild, uncultivated vines. We are like those vine branches, making attachments to things, people, places, ideas. Terri keeps reminding me, “God has amputated us from the world.”
Pruning can be painful.
Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
*There are interesting correlations between these two positions.
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