I Quit

I left my full time job today.

Many of you are already making calls on my behalf to any number of psychiatric facilities. With the economy in a tailspin and people being laid off and let go left and right, what in the world was I thinking?

I still have a mortgage. Bills. A five year old that is eating his weight in groceries every day.

Along with a peace that surpasses all common sense and understanding.

Without going into great detail, the job that I left this morning had begun taking a deteriorating toll on me mentally and emotionally. I stayed the course simply because it was a steady paycheck. Having recently been hired as a ‘part-time’ student minister (as if there is such a thing), it became more clear that God was bringing me back full circle into something new and different.

Here’s my problem: I don’t like new and different. I like predictable. While often made fun of, I am rather proud of my extensive collection of solid black t shirts. I will take the same route to a destination every single time, even if there is a shorter way.

For the last couple of weeks it seemed every message I heard, every passage in the Bible I read, even just things in passing conversations began striking a chord inside me. It was time to move on. Without a clue to what was going to happen next.

That’s great, God, but are You going to tell Wells Fargo that when the house payment is due?

Hebrews 11:8 states that “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.” Another biblical giant, Moses, asked God for a sign that He really wanted him to lead the Hebrews out of slavery. God told Moses that the proof would be that “when you have brought the Israelites out of Egypt, you will return here to worship God at this very mountain.”

Going without knowing. The ’sign’ comes after none is needed. The absolute antithesis to my desire to be in the know and in control.

Here is what I do know:

God is in complete control, no matter what Wall Street, the news media, or the current political climate has to say.

He is not sitting enthroned in Heaven, wringing His hands, fearfully wondering what is going to become of me and my family.

According to Isaiah 49:16, He does have my name inscribed in the palms of His hands with a promise never to forget me. If the Creator of galaxies and stars cared enough to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sin and make a way for me to spend eternity with Him, I think He can handle the classified ads.

Many of you are in the same place that I am, either by your own or someone else’s choosing. It is not the end of the world. It may be God Himself setting you free to do the very thing He created you to do.