Waiting by Kerith

Hey Everyone!

It has been a long time since I posted last! I apologize for that. A lot of times I don't post because either I don't have anything to say or I have so much to say that posting would not do it justice. Then unfortunately, you get these posts where I cram a lot in and am all over the place. Hopefully you will be able to follow. If not, I will try to do better next time :-)

I believe that last I posted was in January. A lot of different things happened since January. As far as my Lifegroup, we studied, "Experiencing God." It was the first time our group did a book together where they were required to do some actual reading/work on their own. My co-leader and I both did it with them and were pretty faithful. I know that we got a lot out of it, and we hope that some of our guys did too. It's a pretty eye-opening study. So often we ask ourselves, "What is God's will for my life" instead of asking, "Where is God at work and how can I join him there?" There's a lot more lessons in that book. If you are interested, I recommend taking a look at it. After that study, we had a couple various lessons, and now our Student Minister Linc is teaching our group about Leadership. I've already learned something, and I think they are too.

Men in Training this semester was over Joe Gibb's, "Game Plan for Life." If you are a man interested in some of the hard-hitting questions of faith, this is a good book for you. It's been a great study for me and great meeting with men of all ages to talk about faith. I look forward to next semester when we study Proverbs. My friend Tom who has been going with me to this study will be in the Navy soon, so it will be a little Bittersweet not having him there with me. There are two separate posts I can do about the things I just mentioned, but I will go ahead and move on.

I have been having a great time hanging out with my friends! I have had lunches with Tom and Zach, I got to have great meetings with Jay, Chris, Linc, and Brian (ministers), and I even went down to Georgia to see Philip and Ferrell! It was a lot of fun, and I hope that those relationships continue to grow.

Now...the Job situation! It seems like this particular subject has been the center of all my thoughts for the past several months. I have been struggling with vocation vs. occupation, where God wants me to be, where I want to be, what the opinion of everyone is, what will happen with Choice A, what will happen with Choice B, where my purpose is, where God is working, where my talents lie, etc. For those of you that are not familiar with Personality types, let me give you a description of mine. I am a type "C" personality. That means I am constantly surrounded by my thoughts, details, I analyze practically everything. Even with this post I will proofread this, post it, and then proofread it again to make sure it's how I want it. I cannot take a break from my thoughts. So because of this, this has been really getting at me. Yet there has been a bit of a breakthrough...

My main concern has been staying around this area because of my involvement with church family/friends. I have a group of guys that I have been teaching for almost 5 years that I want to be there for (at least two more years), I have a place where I am growing spiritually, there are opportunities to serve, and I am developing some good relationships. It is a little difficult to find teaching jobs in this area. Now don't get me wrong. There are several people are are getting jobs in this area, there are things I really could have done to beef up my resume and I could have substitute taught. Saying that, I realize that I could have done more to try to secure a spot. Yet I really felt that I shouldn't do that. It's hard to explain, but I just didn't have a huge desire. What did I do? I stayed at my job. In my job I started to get a lot more responsibilities. While doing these responsibilities I realized that I was actually pretty good at what I did. Others started to realize I was pretty good at what I did. I enjoyed doing it. It turns out, there is a whole career field that employs what I was doing. A couple weeks ago I met with a few of our directors who told me about these opportunities. So after much prayer, prayer from friends and family, making lists, and all the other crazy things that I do, I have decided to pursue this. It will be a lot of work, I may succeed, I may fail, and God knows if it will work out...but I'm going to try.

So there you have it. Now we wait. Just like Elijah waited at the brook of Kerith (here's where the title comes in!) Did you know Kerith means "the cutting place?" It's in that moment of waiting where God cuts away anything that is detrimental to your spiritual health. He already cut the pride that was an issue in my life. Now I believe he is tackling obedience and trust. I just hope it doesn't take something drastic to make me learn those lessons like it did for me to learn my lesson on Pride!

I hope that you all are having a great day. Thank you for reading, and I hope to post again soon!