Many of you know that for the past few months, we have anxiously held out for the right job to come along for my husband. Stepping out in faith to continue serving in a ministry role that we had established at home, he boldly resigned his day job and set his sights on the calling we had received and began looking for employment elsewhere, believing that God was being clear about the path he had marked out for us. Within a week of giving notice to his employer, a call came from the Ministry center about a potential position that God would eventually set me in. Four months later, when people say to me, "How is your new job going," I continue to answer, "It is a personal gift from God that I believe brought me to the Conway Ministry Center." I still get teary eyed thinking about how I still feel chosen to be where I am and adopted as I have been from my new work family.
I will admit that I had to contain my excitement when I received a call from my friend asking me if I would consider applying for the position because I simply wasn't looking for anything different. With my husband submitting applications everywhere, telling him that I was praying about the potential for a new job was awkward to say the least. I remember uttering during prayer, "but God, we were looking for him a job, remember?" I would later give God the praise for placing me where He could use me yet still worry about Jarett. Looking back, I see God in every part of the equation, but during the time, there were so many questions and concerns that I had. What did God have in store for Jarett, and for my family?
A few months went by and finally, we thought we had secured a really good job with the government. It would be a great opportunity for our family and we would finally be able to regain some of the financial stability that had suffered while we sought employment. Just as we we had stretched as far as we could financially, we learned that the postal job would not be a possibility because of a misdemeanor charge that stemmed from something nineteen years prior. We were essentially back to square one. We focused on a children's ministry opportunity that had been presented to us a few months prior and while the answer at the time wasn't clear, the God we believe in was.
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
The night that we were going to be leaving to go and work this children's ministry event, Jarett received a call from a friend of ours, wanting to meet over coffee and discuss something when we got back. It was that night that we received an offer that would change the downward financial spiral that we were embarking upon. Not long after Jarett began working from home with the new company that he was now independently contracted with, our son got sick. It has been through the many prayers that I am now able to recognize God's finger prints on everything once again.
It started the week before Thanksgiving with a simple cough. The coughing led to throwing up, and then fevers, and then body aches (mostly in the rib section from the constant cough) and then headaches. What appeared to be the flu has never been diagnosed as more than sinus drainage and in the two visits to the doctors office and one trip to the ER, he has coughed his head off for three weeks, running a fever about 75% of that time, causing him to miss school for virtually two weeks plus the week school was out for Thanksgiving. The scariest night came when his fever exploded to almost 105 and I watched him rapidly breath for an hour after throwing up and coughing into the wee hours of the morning. His health is improving slowly now but I sure do covet prayers for our little guy as we aren't all the way past this.
As we were preparing to pray together during our staff meeting this week, the realization came upon me like a ton of bricks. God knew that Paxton would be getting sick. He knew that if Jarett had received the postal job, we would have been faced with decisions that he in his infinite wisdom has spared us from. He paved the way where there was none, and he brought us to the place where we can't do anything but embrace the gift he gave us daily.
I know many people who are waiting on God to answer prayer. I have friends who are desperate for employment, for the health of their family members to improve, for their marriages to be saved. I know what it looks like to walk in the unknown, but I can say with assurance that God has a plan and we must trust Him, even when we don't see what it is. A dear coworker said to me, on the day that we got Jarett's first paycheck from his new job, this: "I pray for the kind of faith that can send an empty fork to an empty plate and it will not return empty to my mouth because of the provision God provides."
I pray for that kind of faith too, my friend. And not just because I see it, but because I trust the provider and His plan for my life.
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