As a child I hated being made to stretch before soccer practice or dance class. In high school my least favorite part of cheerleading practice was stretching. As an adult who loves to run, I HATE to stretch. Like I said, I've never liked it.
Maybe that's why today has been so hard on me.
I feel stretched.
This morning it felt like I propped my leg up on a bench, reached over to touch my toes, and....SNAP! I just couldn't handle it anymore. Tears flowed. Cries wailed. Prayers went up (again).
Someone once told me stretching would make me more flexible and that it would get my muscles in balance and help them work more smoothly. I've read that muscles that are warmed up before they're put under stress are more likely to be able to handle that stress.
(I'm hoping this isn't just a warm-up.)
So here's the deal... I'm having a hard time with the whole 'losing my job' thing. It's painful. It hurts. It's stretching me and it is QUITE uncomfortable.
I've spent pretty much the whole day in tears. My eyes are red and bloodshot. My tissue boxes are nearly empty (thank God for Charmin as a backup) and there are tear stains all over my desk calendar. It's. Not. Easy.
So, in my pity party, I was thinking back on last week and how difficult it was to start training my replacement in Murfreesboro. I spent the week in a hotel, away from boys, schooling my predecessor on the ins and outs of the job I love. I watched life go on like normal for my co-workers, wishing I knew the feeling. Then, amidst the craziness of that week I got the most incredible message on Facebook from a dear friend. There's no way I can summarize it for you, so I'll just paste it below.
"I was so blessed thinking about and praying for you in your trial at work. You know how Joseph (with the colorful coat) was a righteous man and a responsible employee. He could relate to you, as he was wrongfully imprisoned because he wouldn't be seduced by the most powerful woman in the land. After all the injustice done to him, he still interpreted the Pharoah's dream years later and served him well. God was working all things for His glory and Joseph's good. In fact, Joseph said, "God sent me ahead of you [my family] to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance." Unjust imprisonment was the best thing that could ever happen to Joseph. Through the actions of bad leadership, God was accomplishing the BEST thing that could happen to him. And by faith, that's what we can be certain of in all our life. You can work like being fired is the best thing that could happen to you, because of your faith in God's sovereign goodness toward you. God will not withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly. The words of George Muller at his wife's funeral always make me cry. He grieved deeply over his wife's death and it took years for him to recover. Knowing that God is sovereignly good to us doesn't change the grief over injustice and the fallenness of the broken world. Anyway, this is the truth he clung to at his wife's funeral:
"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing
does He withhold from those who walk uprightly." Psalm 84:11
Muller said, "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly--I am in myself a poor worthless sinner, but I have been saved by the blood of Christ; and I do not live in sin, I walk uprightly before God. Therefore, if it is really good for me, my darling wife will be raised up again; sick as she is. God will restore her again. But if she is not restored again, then it would not be a good thing for me. And so my heart was at rest. I was satisfied with God. And all this springs, as I have often said before, from taking God at His word, believing what He says." I am praying for you that you would have faith to believe that God is sovereignly good to you. I am praying that as you feel your weakness and turn to the Spirit, you will work with all your heart toward your weak employer, for you know this is the best thing that could happen: for you, and for God's kingdom. I am out of time, but sometime I will tell you how your trial has brought me comfort as I pray for you!!! Love you, Kari!!"
I came back to this message tonight just to read it. Just to feel the encouragement and remember the truth found in those words.
Yes, I'm being stretched. Yes, it's painful. Yes, it hurts like nothing I've experienced before. But, oh, HE is so good. He is sovereign. He knows so much better than me what is good and what is best. I'll hurt and I'll grieve over the loss of something I loved, over the injustice I feel. But I'll move on. And I'll remember His lovingkindness to undeserving little me. I'll hold fast to what I know is true. I may have bloodshot eyes and a wastebasket full of tissue, but I've also got a Savior holding my future in His hands.
(Again, thank you, Angelica.)
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