A Blessing in Disguise

This week I came to realize that God has shed new light on our current situation.

A little background...like so many of our fellow brothers and sisters, Chris got the shocking news that he was laid off back in September 2008. Being young go-getters, about to embark upon the next 2,304 phases of our lives (i.e. purchasing our first home, starting a family, purchasing a new car, going on our dream trip to Australia...), we found ourselves stopped dead in our tracks, dazed and confused. On a side note, certainly no small coincidence, several weeks earlier, I had completed graduate school and began my career as a pediatric speech-language pathologist. Me becoming gainfully employed was a total God send.

Saying that we have simply stayed afloat over the past 8-9 months doesn't do our situation justice. We have had extreme ups and extreme downs. Being filled with the peace of God has caused us to go after his plan for us and to keep on keepin' on despite setbacks and failures.

The mom of one of my patients once told me: "You can choose to pray or you can choose to worry. You can't choose to do both. If you choose to pray, there is no need to worry. If you choose to worry, there is no need to pray".

At first glance, being faced with unemployment brings about feelings of...well, complete insecurity, fear, and a touch of insanity. Trust me, I have totally been "that" girl, you know the one huddled in the fetal position wailing and pounding her fists while crying buckets of tears. Yes, it was quite a sight. Upon pulling myself up by my bootstraps and drying off my tears, I realized that when there is less of me, there is more of God and more room for his mighty plan to prevail. At that very moment, I decided not to worry. I decided to pray.

This being said, Hubs and I have suddenly come to appreciate our current situation.

We know that we have all that we need and we have been able to open our eyes to the needs of those around us. No, we might not have the same level of income we were accustomed to, we might not have a 5 bedroom house to call our own, we might not be able to embark upon the journey into parenthood as planned, but we absolutely have ALL that we need.

I am confused and ashamed at why it took me so long to get over myself, to call off the pity party, and to seize the day and start livin' in the now. Looking back, I see that God has been at work in me this entire time. It is true that nothing surprises the big man upstairs. Although we felt like the earth tilted and threw us off, He has been in control this entire time and will continue to be in control. Absolutely remarkable!

Back when we were livin' in the land o' plenty, sadly, we failed to seek out those whose needs were greater than our own. Since having the financial rug ripped out from under us this past September, we have found ourselves on one sweet incredible faith journey. We have learned to trust God 100% with all that we have. In return, we have been blessed beyond our own comprehension. The most beautiful part is that we have been afforded the opportunity to be a blessing to those around us.

I won't go so far as to say that I hope we stay in this moment forever, but I will say that some things truly are blessings in disguise. For this blessing in disguise, we will be forever grateful.