Okay I lied. I’m not thankful for losing a job. It’s happened twice the last 18 months I’ve lost a job. And it sucks.
Losing a job is like breaking up. When you break up, you lose both your current lifestyle and future dreams. When you lose a job dreams of paying off your creditors are replaced with fears of how you’ll make it through the next month. Relationships built by the trial of the workplace become fond memories of people you may never see again, and wouldn’t have anything to talk about if you did. Even things as basic a day to day rhythm of when to wake up and when to go to sleep are taken away.
But a lot of good has come from losing jobs.
1. It’s forced me to reevaluate what I need. Why do I own the things I do? Go out when I do? Spend money on certain things?
A few less lattes may do you good.
2. It has forced me to ask who I am. You take a job because you need money, and you hope you’ll be good at it. When those things no longer stand, you have to look deep in the mirror and figure out who you really are. Which will hopefully take you somewhere better.
3. It means I have to ask for help. Jesus put it this way: “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.” So much of following Christ means relying on him to provide, and trusting that he will work through others to take care of you. In that humiliation, you realize how small you are, how big God is, and everything is really going to be okay.
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