Thoughts on my time of unemployment.

From September 1, 2009, until the middle of May, 2010, I (Tim) was either unemployed or underemployed.  For 6 weeks over the holidays and all of March and April, I worked at Costco part time.  The rest of that time I was without a job at all. (I did watch some great kids on Wednesdays and got paid $50 each time, which was nice.)  My daily routine was to run in the morning, have a quiet time after breakfast and then spend much of the rest of the day applying for jobs.  I had two group interviews, four or five phone interviews, and about 8 or so face to face interviews during that time.  I applied for several hundred jobs.  When I finally got a job offer, it came from the same place that had turned me down for a different position.  I didn't take the interview seriously and almost turned down the second interview but now I am glad that I did not.  In fact, I prayed about going to the interview and felt strongly that I should go.  When they offered the job, Heidi and I went to different rooms and prayed about it for a while and both felt that I should take it.  We both heard from God that it was a prophetic act to take this job.  (In the Bible, prophets often did unusual or counter cultural things to show people what the Lord had to say about certain situations.)  While the Lord is giving us installments of understanding about the prophetic act, we still don't understand completely and are waiting on Him.  I get to work with people in a vulnerable state who need a tremendous amount of encouragement.  They are all in the beginning stages of finding a job, which is a tough place these days, and my recent experiences make me better suited to empathize and encourage them.  I am glad to have a full time job again and excited to see what the Lord has in store.