New Season, More Lessons

I guess God has a pretty good sense of timing.

As I am now on my own* and in a completely new town trying to make arrangements for the marriage of my dreams and reality (it is taking them a while to warm up to each other) I find myself working more and making less than I used two.  I really don't mind this as I am actually taking steps forward in my career, but this has pushed my focus more toward my budget than my situation in the past had.  I had a great restaurant gig previously that paid the bills pretty well for someone right out of college, and now that's not there.

This has gotten me started worrying more about finances.  Not that I'll ever go hungry or without a roof over my head, but I have gotten very conscious of how every shift I have waiting tables (my second job) counts very much toward meeting the budget at the end of the month.  With more on the line (working hard for my dreams) and less guaranteed shifts emotions tend to run higher when things don't go my way.

A lesson I learned in the last season of life was that, as a waiter, neither the customers nor my boss are, in the end, who provides for me.  It's always God, as He's sovereign over everything; but that can be hard to actually remember in the heat of the moment, hard to use as a compass to tell my emotions that they are misinformed (they really need to do their research sometimes).

And in comes God's sense of timing.  This topic had been on my mind recently.  Then, after a frustrating situation the day before, I had a Saturday night shift (at the restaurant job) cancelled.  I got angry.

So I figured I had the evening to get my perspective back, but I did need to go by job #2 and talk to the powers that be about the now repeated schedule issues.  It was a good talk.

As I walked back through downtown to get in my car, reflecting on how God really is my provider and is God even over shift work, my phone rang.  One of the waitresses had a lot of homework that night and called out; I had a shift again.  And I made very good money that night.

It is a lesson I am still learning.  I am so thankful for a God that will slap me in the face (lovingly) with a educational experience that will draw me closer to Him and train me to keep my eyes focused on things above, instead of this earthly life.  When He speaks into your life, please listen.

Then blog about it.  I want to read it.

*While I am technically "on my own," I am still living with a loving family... just not the one that raised me.  Yes, I pay rent.