“you’re going to want it back,” my wise father informed me. I looked at him and then straight ahead. My mind was set, and I was sure my decision to leave work was the right one. I had had enough of those seemingly endless, tiring, mostly uncreative days of my job. I dreamed of a nearly perfect schedule filled with all the wonderful and “good” things I wanted to do instead, and all the resources I needed at my right hand. I couldn’t wait for more free time. Time to just “breathe”.

Undoubtedly, that rather ridiculously unrealistic inclination fell flat on its face. I did perhaps receive my “wish” to be free of my job, when someone came in to fill it. And I am sure you can guess that as I sat on my bed the next day, I wanted nothing more on earth than to be back at work. Tears threatened my eyes as I threw myself into scrubbing and cleaning everything in view. I had to do something at home, after all.

Towards the end of that horrible day, I said painfully, “dad, I want my job back!” Of course, I knew I couldn’t have it back. He had told me that nearly a dozen times. Perhaps I thought whining to him made me feel better….or not.
He could have said, “I told you so,” a million times. Instead, he simply encouraged me that God would show me His plans in time.
The next day I went to a women’s meeting and the theme was, “contentment, joy, and kindness.” Two things gripped my mind that night.

1) we need to speak truth to ourselves rather than let our emotions speak to us.
2) our joy needs to be founded in Christ, not our circumstances.

The part about joy stayed with me for a while…

Suddenly my perspective on where God has me at the moment spun back in place and I realized once again, it’s not about me, it’s about Christ. It’s about joy in christ because of what He did, and what God is doing for His kingdom.

… a life without that kind of eternal and every moment joy, is not really a life at all.

k.e.h