Moving Ahead: A New Stage in My Journey

It's strange how emotions and feelings choose the funniest times to pop up and make a nuisance of themselves. Perhaps I shouldn't say nuisance since these are actually emotions I should be feeling, but I hate having the urge to burst into tears at the drop of a hat.

The Lord has blessed me mightily this month. Starting next Monday I will be one of Compassion International's newest employees in the SDP department (a lot of financial and data entry work). If you're not familiar with the company, they focus on child sponsorship in 3rd world countries and also handle a lot of disaster relief and family training. It's a wonderful, wonderful company that uplifts the lives of the downtrodden and shines the light of Jesus into the darkest of places. I can't even begin to express my love for this company, and the honor and gratitude I feel for their hiring me. They're changing my life, and in the best way possible.

The downside is that I have to say goodbye. Goodbye to the lovely group of ladies in Bible study because they meet on Wednesday mornings. I have only known them for a little over a month, but I'm so fond of them all already. Moving to an evening group won't be the same. But especially, goodbye to my coworkers. I've fought tears this entire week when one person or other came up to give me a hug and express their happiness for this new opportunity, along with their sincerest sorrow that I'm leaving. I know these women, and I'm going to miss them so much. They've become a sort of family over the last 3 years, and no amount of emotionally distancing myself from them in the last few months has kept me from shedding tears.

Change brings with it a fair share of sorrow and joy. Right now I'm feeling a bit of both. If I were moving away, that would be one thing, but I'm not. I'll still send my holds to the library, and I'll see my former coworkers every time I walk through the library doors. I'm not gone in the truest sense of the word. I just won't be here every day, participating in the move to the new location in May, helping pack and shift and dust. I won't be a part of any of that, and it pains me a little to leave just when things are changing. But maybe that's the best time to leave, before I feel resentment at the way things will be in the future compared to how they have been in the past.

The Lord knew what He was doing. I've done nothing but pray for a new job over the last few months, that He would guide me, and that He would help me to accept the decisions He opens for me and the doors that He closes. I was honestly prepared either way about this latest opportunity. If they'd hired someone else, I would have been all right, accepting it as the Lord's will because I'd already turned the interview over to Him. But this time He answered yes, and the only thing I know is that this must be in His will, in His perfect timing, and now I am going to trust in Him as I move forward, one step at a time, one day at a time, into this new life.

Pray for me, my friends, as I start this new phase of my journey. Pray that God will grant me wisdom and peace in the decisions I make in my new job, and that I will both find joy and bring joy to others. I may not post as often starting in March, but I'll still try to be as regular as it is humanly possible to be with a full-time job. My blog will continue to be an outlet of fun and fanciful daydreams, a way for me to set aside the labors of the day and revel in the curious, the absurd, and the delightful with all of you. May the Lord bless this new dawn in my life.