Faith and Perspective

I've been unemployed since September 1, 2011, and will at last begin a new job on Monday, March 25, 2013, and in reviewing the past year and a half of the job search, I began thinking (again) about faith and perspective.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1

How I love the King James Version of this verse.  Faith giving heft and tangibility to something unknown, unseen.  Making the object of hope into something palpable, when we are faced only with questions and the unknown.  We are so wired in to touch, smell, sight, what we can physically perceive.  Faith fills in for the physical when all we have is something spiritual to hold.

Fortunately, time often gives the perspective to observe faith backwards:

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.  Hebrews 11:3

I'm only an amateur theologian, but this says to me that what we can see now, the things that are, these were created out of something we don't understand.  From something totally out of this world, beyond our ken.  God loops us into His process through faith and gives us the ability to slightly understand the inconceivable.  This process applies to life, too.

Thoughts like this bend my brain into awkward positions and make me a bit dizzy.  I can almost hear the synapses crackling with electric activity inside my head.  Inconceivable!

"You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya

I've been sincerely looking for work, perhaps not as desperately as some since Carl is employed and we are hardly starving, but faithfully looking since we returned from our honeymoon, dutifully applying for positions I didn't want, sometimes even prayed I wouldn't be offered, telling God as I pressed the "send" button to release my resume "You know I don't really want this job, but I need one", especially while I was receiving an unemployment check and required to keep a list of job applications.  I confess I had other things on my mind the first few weeks of unemployment, wedding plans, becoming a wife, settling in to the Rectory.  Marrying Carl and the ensuing process of becoming a wife and "Rectorina" is an entire story of faith and perspective all by itself.

Throughout the process of job hunting, I tried to figure out what I was looking for.  The target is easier to hit if you can see it.  I went through a long list of possibilities, but the consistent theme was to find something part time, close to home, potentially something entirely different than listed on my resume.  I am very content to be here for Carl and keep house, prepare meals and be part of our church and community, things I don't think I could do well while working 40 hours and commuting again.

Meanwhile I applied.  And waited.

"I hate waiting." - Inigo Montoya

There were a few interviews for jobs I was only mildly interested in, though happy to have an interview, but partly relieved when they went no where.  And one interview at a pretty cool place that never called me back to let me know they hired someone else.  I still give them the stink eye when I walk by the building.  The Lord closed doors - I asked Him to clearly open or close them each time I interviewed, so am thankful.  BUT, looking back, NOW, on the other end, about to begin a part time job that really seems to fit the bill (pun intended: paychecks certainly do that!), I have a fresh perspective on His timing, on faith.  This particular door was not open at the time I began looking, and God knew that.  Even if I did complain audibly more than once, and wish for handwriting on the wall.  Oh, me of little faith!

Did I mention I hate waiting?


As this new chapter in life's adventure begins, I give thanks that I can review chapters already written and see, once again, the faithfulness of God and put my own tiny faith in perspective.  I am a slow learner, but God is patient and keeps repeating Himself until I get it.

Speaking of faith, where is SPRING?  Until she shows her face,  have faith in the evidence of things not seen; they are buried underneath the snow.  :)


For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that ii may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the the thing whereto I sent it.  For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.  Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and is shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.  Isaiah 56: 8-13