DAY SEVEN: Rescued from Lesser Things

Aside from mowing the yard, today was uneventful.

I did decide not to keep the job with the audio company, it was going to be too few hours and too little notice- and lots of nights and weekends on the spur of the moment.  One of the most important things I do in life is to be there to put my kids to bed each night.  Missing here and there is no big deal, but missing often is.

Since today was low on the job news, I thought I'd take the chance to explain why I kept the blog title of Rescued From Lesser Things. 

I think it is a healthy way to look at life as a progression.  One thing is left for a better thing.  Most of the time, we choose these things- like beginning a new relationship and leaving single life behind or moving to a new, better house.  Sometimes the choice is made for us, like mine.  Now, in that instance, I could choose to view things as one of two ways:  1) That someone else crushed my life, or 2) That I was rescued from a lesser thing.

I choose the second.  For several years now, my job at the law firm was stifling me.  I had freedom with my schedule, but I never felt that I was in fact, free.  I was doing a job that never felt like it helped people.  Partly because I never bought the line that, " We help people keep taxes low by getting delinquents to pay."  As I did the job, I learned that there are, in fact, some jerks who just refuse to pay.  But a lot of people fall on hard times, get sick, or go through junk you and I could never endure.  Those people have the deck stacked against them, and then we piled on.

I want to help people.  Time was, I showed up and people liked what I had to say.  For the last four years, when people saw me at their door, they got bad news.  I was there to collect a paycheck earned on the misfortune of others.  (Yes, they did owe taxes, but they were still people to me- not numbers.  And that made it personal for me.)

I wanted out of the job, but as long as I had it, I had a tiny little bit of security.  I was picky with what jobs to look at.  I felt no pressure to actually find a new job.  I was trapped.

My boss didn't realize this when he fired me, but he rescued me.

Kristin noticed it Sunday as I spoke at church- there was a weightlessness and a joy that had been absent for a while.  I was doing what I loved knowing that I didn't have to go to work at a job I hated the next morning.

I was rescued from a lesser thing- for a better thing.

I'm still going to be picky and choosy about jobs, because my God, my family and my church come first.  But I need money to pay bills, so I pray for a job that will fit in those things, not share time with them- if that makes sense.

Sometimes, we can set ourselves free from the lesser things, the things that hold us back.  And sometimes we need to be rescued.

That's what this blog will be about.