When it Rains it Pours - Keep the Faith Anyway

This is our first time to walk through a job loss. It's the worst. This is also our first time to live through a pandemic. It is also the worst. In case you were wondering, I do not recommend experiencing your first job loss and first pandemic simultaneously. 

There are many, many people who have dealt with losing a job. Sometimes it really is no big deal to lose a job. I got let go from a job with a doctors office during my post college years, but I was planning to quit anyway, so it was really easy to cope with. I had a new job before the week was out.

Other times it's a monumentally stressful and terrible thing to lose a job. My husband's job supports our family. It's what we lived on for the eight years I stayed home and took care of our young children. Even now his salary keeps all of our bills paid, keeps us in our home, and allows us to buy gas and groceries. We live off of it. My earnings are what we use to pay for soccer and gymnastics for the girls - the extras. 

In March of this year the company my husband worked for decided to outsource a large portion of it's IT department; more specifically the area that he worked in. He lost his job. He had worked for that company for nearly fifteen years. And in one day it was gone. It was devastating. We decided to make lemonade with our lemons and use this as an opportunity for him to find something better - something with more growth opportunities and a company that places a higher value on their employees. Then coronavirus happened. The world turned upside down. Businesses closed and people stayed home for months. 

You can guess how well a job search goes when companies close down factories and offices and send employees to work from home. Not great. There was nothing. Not a single email or phone call from anyone that the husband had reached out to for two months. There were jobs posted on websites, but sending in a resume doesn't do a lot of good when the company has a hiring freeze. At the end of May the husband finally started getting a few emails and phone calls about potential jobs, but nothing ever panned out. He either didn't have the right skill set, or experience, or the company wasn't looking for anyone at the moment. 

This is a discouraging situation. It is so hard to hold on to hope and positivity when nothing seems to be going right. Fortunately, as Christians, our hope and joy doesn't rely on our circumstances. It relies on a loving, omnipotent, sovereign creator who wants what is good for us. That doesn't mean this season hasn't been hard, or won't continue to be hard, or that we haven't had really dark days full of despair, but it does mean that we don't stay there. We know that our God will provide for us. We don't know what He will provide, or how He will provide it, but we know He will. He reminds us again and again in the bible that He will provide for us and he is working all things out for His glory and our good. This is just one set of verses that I have been resting in during the past four months:

Matthew 6:26-34(ESV)

"26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

I don't know if the husband will get a great, well paying job that provides for all of our needs, or if this will be a long wearying season of dissatisfaction with his work life, but I do know that if we trust in the Lord and wait upon Him that this season will not be wasted. 

Fortunately, we have seen the Lord's hand on us from the moment the husband lost his job and before. We had some summer plans that we had to cancel even before Covid-19 and the job loss, but that would have most definitely had to of been cancelled afterwards, so the Lord was protecting our hearts from bitterness in that. The company the husband worked for offered him a three month extension before his last day, so he had time when he was still employed and earning money to look for a job - however fruitless that search proved to be. That is three months that he could have been without work, or any leads to work, that we didn't have to worry about how we would pay the bills. 

Also, the new company that is taking over IT support for the old company offered the husband a one year contract to continue his old role of support (and to help get the new company up to speed). So, even though the future is uncertain, and even though there are some serious downsides to the new company, the Lord is still providing the husband with work that will continue to pay the bills for the next 12 months. 

Some days I do a really great job of focusing on what God has done and thanking Him for His goodness. Other days I am bogged down in anger and frustration over our circumstances. You know what - it is okay - it's okay to feel all of those things. It is okay to have an abundance of trust, and faith, and joy on Monday and be sad, angry, and grieving on Wednesday. God made all of our emotions and He has made room for all of our feelings. The reason it's okay is because the work is not mine to complete - it was completed in and through Christ. I don't have to be steadfast because He is steadfast. Not that I should give up and not continue to try to trust Him in and through all things, but the work is complete - I just need to finish well. 

John 19:28-30 (ESV)

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

So on the days when I am full of joy; that is a work of the Lord. And on the days when I am hurt and angry; He is still there holding me fast. And hopefully, if I continue to allow the Lord to work in my life, the next time we face a crisis like this (or worse than this) I will be even better equipped and ready to maintain my joy in the Lord. Sanctification. Perseverance. These are the things that produce a steadfast faith. These are the things that allow us to run the race and to not grow weary. Not that there won't be hard days, or days where I feel exhausted and at the end of myself, but there will always be a hope and a light even on those darkest of days. And that hope is Jesus. 

Romans 5:1-5(ESV)

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

If you don't know this peace - the assurance that even when all seems dark and horrible that there is still hope - I encourage you to read through Romans in a bible, check out a local gospel preaching church, or a friend that has a gospel centered faith and talk to them about how they continue to find joy and hope - even on the hard days and when everything and everyone feels lost.