It's up to you to get me home, I won't go it alone

Looking outside, you'd think it was November and 40 degrees - it's gray, dreary and drizzling. But reality tells me it's 89 degrees and muggy. Ah, the summer months. At least the facade will last as long as I'm inside at work and the neutral 71 degrees let my mind just imagine what it's like out there. (Out there...on the outside...my desk that looks out the front door all day taunts me. I can't leave...I can't reach the...outside...until the glorious 5:00 hour strikes. Alas...on with my lunch of cold pizza and carrot sticks.)

I STILL haven't received my Twilight books from the library. My sweet husband gave me his pin number so I can periodically look online to see if they've arrived. Big mistake. I've been checking every 20 minutes. If anyone at the library monitors online account activity, they'll think I'm a freakazoid for sure.

We're hiring a Senior position CAD Technician at the office and I've been put in charge of collecting resumes and follow-up. I couldn't be more thrilled. Because of Dan's unemployment, I know exactly what job seekers are looking for from companies when they submit resumes. I'm tickled to be an encouragement to people. Yesterday a man replied to my reply, thanking me for my "genuine care and concern" for the outcome of his opportunity. Today a man (and his wife, Laura) replied, saying they were encouraged by my tag-on Scripture that I have as part of my email signature. (1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.) He said that the Scripture encouraged he and his way to "stand in HIS strength." Right now I love my job and I'm thrilled to be able to be a small encouragement to people on the rocky road of unemployment. I feel the Lord tugging at my heart to, at some point in my life, use my experience as a spouse-of-unemployed to reach out and encourage others. Hmmm...

The big Office Move is finally happening for me and my co-workers. I think I feel the most mounting excitement out of everyone. All the moving responsibilities trickled down to me and my office-mom-ness, so I have this mental image of myself with a stern face and a clipboard, directing people from the phone company, furniture company, contractors...HA! I laugh at myself and my mock leadership.

Side note - I just took a message for my boss from a man named Moustapha. I wonder how his growing-up years were?

Dan's continuing his job search diligently every day. The unknown of unemployment (or more the unknown of when unemployment will be over) is maddening. Alas, my extremity is God's opportunity and He is working through me and Dan to achieve things unknown to me for His kingdom. My devos were a great encouragement this morning...

"There is a limit to affliction. God sends it, and removes it. Do you sigh and say, 'When will the end be?' Let us quietly wait and patiently endure the will of the Lord till He cometh. Our Father takes away the rod when His design in using it is fully served.

If the affliction is sent for testing us, that our graces may glorify God, it will end when the Lord has made us bear witness to His praise.

We would not wish the affliction to depart until God has gotten out of us all the honor which we can possibly yield Him. There may be today 'a great calm.' Who knows how soon those raging billows will give place to a sea of glass, and the sea birds sit on the gentle waves?

After long tribulation, the flail is hung up, and the wheat rests in the garner. We may, before many hours are past, be just as happy as now we are sorrowful.

It is not hard for the Lord to turn night into day. He that sends the clouds can as easily clear the skies. Let us be of good cheer. It is better farther on. Let us sing Hallelujah by anticipation.

Trial is only for a season. The showers soon pass. Weeping may tarry only for the few hours of the short summer night; it must be gone at daybreak. Our light affliction is but for a moment. Trial is for a purpose.

The very fact of trial proves that there is something in us very precious to our Lord; else He would not spend so much pains and time on us. Christ would not test us if He did not see the precious ore of faith mingled in the rocky matrix of our nature; and it is to bring this out into purity and beauty that He forces us through the fiery ordeal.

Be patient, O sufferer! The result will more than compensate for all our trials, when we see how they wrought out the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. To have one word of God's commendation; to be honored before the holy angels; to be glorified in Christ, so as to be better able to flash His glory on Himself - ah! that will more than repay for all.

As the weight of a clock, or the ballast in the vessel, are necessary for their right ordering, so is trouble in the soul-life. The sweetest scents are only obtained by tremendous pressure; the fairest flowers grow amid alpine snow-solitudes; the fairest gems have suffered longest from the lapidary's wheel; the noblest statues have borne the most blows of the chisel. All, however, are under law. Nothing happens that has not been appointed with consummate care and foresight."