About a month ago I found out the school I work at is closing after this school year. That was an awesome meeting to go to. I am getting ready to wrap up my first year teaching and was looking forward to how I could improve upon things in the fall. But apparently that is not in the cards. So I’ve spent the past month searching for a new job and am still in that process. Jesus told me the storms would come and this one came out of nowhere.
I found out the news at a staff meeting that was held on a Thursday afternoon. The Sunday prior to the meeting, I preached at Charisma Church. The title of my message was Into The Unknown. I preached about how Exodus 13 tells us that God led the Israelites in a roundabout way to get to the promised land (Exodus 13:18). God took them through the wilderness. God took them into the unknown. My three main points were that in those unknown moments:
- God is with us
- We can’t be afraid
- We have to do things God’s way
I’ve always said that God has a sense of humor. I preached this message on Sunday and then on Thursday found out I was losing my job. Well played God. God literally put me in a situation where I got to practice what I preached. When I got the news I wanted to panic. I wanted to freak out. I wanted to be angry. I wanted to be upset. I wanted to start running through all the possible solutions in my head. But I couldn’t do any of these things. My reaction honestly shocked me.
I was peaceful.
At first the only reason I found peace was because I forced myself to. I couldn’t allow myself to preach something one day and then turn around and do the exact opposite. But as the days went on I found true peace. Philippians 4:6-7 says,
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
You better believe I prayed when I got the news. And I found that peace that doesn’t make any sense. The peace that goes beyond anything I can understand. I know God is going to take care of me. But it has also been a struggle to keep that peace. I have found myself getting worried that I was too peaceful about the situation. I worried about peace. That doesn’t even make sense. It hasn’t been the easiest process, but I have to keep reminding myself that my storm doesn’t surprise God. It hasn’t thrown off His plan. It didn’t catch Him off guard and unprepared.
It has been a month and I still don’t have a job lined up. I’m still in the middle of the storm, but I feel like I am in the eye of a hurricane. I can look around and see a bunch of craziness but where I am standing things are calm. Things are peaceful.
until next time…