I’ve been gone a long, LONG time, and it’s been a deep, dark night of the soul. I stupidly thought I’d give up anger for Lent, after all, a Proverbs 31 Woman couldn’t possibly give vent to anger? True, but P3W I apparently am NOT.
We settled in our new home, the night after a serious accident (we are fine, car was not), a horrible closing where we ended up with a higher monthly mortgage than expected, and soon after a stolen radio. Our deductible for the accident was far higher than we thought too, and this place started looking like the money pit. We were phoneless and without internet, which in my business, costs me money.
I was lost, forlorn, without a church home too. (I still am.) But in the midst of this, God sent me a passage:
Now I tell you to settle there and build houses. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them. Get married and have children, then help your sons find wives and help your daughters find husbands, so they can have children as well. I want your numbers to grow, not to get smaller. Pray for peace in Babylonia and work hard to make it prosperous. The more successful that nation is, the better off you will be.
Jer.29:4-7
God has made it plain that he planted us here, purposely. See my emphasis above? In moving here, we did what I did not think was possible: we built our own house. My thinking had been to come here, and stack the shelves with brownies to bring to the neighbors as they move in (none yet). Funny thing is, this is verbatim what my secret sister said to me at our Christmas luncheon.
And while my Christianity is flagging, particularly with Sundays of no church, my faith in the One God is not, and while I cannot share what I do not have, I CAN share what I do.
Now that I’m re-reading this passage I see another thing too. I did the unthinkable, I applied for a pretty good job. And – even though I haven’t interviewed or gotten a callback or truly applied much in 8 years – I made it to round 2 of the interviews. And that fits to “work hard to make it prosperous”. Wow.
I’d like to be back on track. I tried to go to the nearest Wesleyan church and just couldn’t find it this morning. I’ll need to try again, I guess. Weeks on end without corporate worship are NOT the same, and my strength is waning.
Pray for me.