Tag: job loss

Categories
Ramblings

Where Have You Been?!?! (& a return from a lengthy absence)

Did you ever get asked that question by your parents – perhaps when you missed curfew? When our absence is unexpected, those who care about us want to know what has happened. an image showing a directional sign "lost" and another one "found" to relate to my absence

And so when we are running quite late, we know that this question is coming. So we begin concocting some great excuse, working up various explanations for each point we think we might need!

Well, some have wondered the same regarding my absence from all social media & website postings. And as I have encountered some of you, I’ve had several tell me they wish I would start posting my devotional thoughts again.
– First, Thank you for the encouragement!
– Second, I apologize for my absence. And…
– Third, in response to the question, “Where Have You Been???”
…let me share my concocted excuse!

My absence hinged on the whirlwind of changes in my life over these past two-and-a-half years. This extended hiatus goes all the way back to 2019, when I felt God calling me to a new ministry position with Lifeway. During the first six months of learning that new ministry position, I did not have time to write. But then as I was just getting my footing and preparing to start posting again, the pandemic occurred, and I ended up losing my job due to the economic downturn. (I plan to say more about the loss of my job in a future post, because I know this has occurred to many people during these past two years of turmoil and uncertainty, including to some of my own family members and several more from our church family.)

The next few months were spent praying about what new doors God would open for us. And instead of posting on social media, my time was taken up with sending out resumes and taking part in interviews. In August of 2020, God opened a new door and provided us with the wonderful opportunity as I was invited to serve as the Senior Pastor of Poplar Springs Drive Baptist Church in Meridian!

Even though pastoring was not unfamiliar territory for me, this was a new church family with new staff and new systems to learn.

Also, becoming a pastor in the middle of a pandemic where neither I nor the church family could see each others’ faces due to masks was certainly a weird way to get started in a new church. So with learning new people and systems while also learning how to pastor during a pandemic, I again was left with too little time to write.

silly picture with a person's whole face covered by a mask
(Don’t worry. We didn’t wear our masks this way!)

But fast-forward a year-and-a-half later, and while the pandemic isn’t quite over, life has definitely become more stable. As a church family, we are finding our rhythm, and that is beginning to open up my time to be able to do a bit more writing. So I’m planning to begin sharing some thoughts again.

This morning, I simply want to share with you some thoughts from Psalm 20 which I read as part of my Bible reading this morning. As I read it, I first thought of it as a prayer for myself. But then as I finished praying through it, my mind went to my brothers and sisters in Ukraine. Our Christian family in the Ukraine is in such difficulty right now. Certainly all of Ukraine is. But our Christian brothers and sisters are distressed and displaced like so many others in their nation, annd they are also desiring to be a light in the darkness for others. And therefore, here is a prayer we can pray from Psalm 20 for them today and in the days ahead:

Father God, answer the prayers of your people in this day of trouble. Great God, protect our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and send them help that only You can provide. Sustain their faith and help them to feel Your presence as they continue to trust in You even in the midst of their distress.

You are the victorious One – the One who sends us salvation. Help our Christian family in Ukraine to continue to point others to You. Help them to shout for joy at Your victory – the victory of eternal life even in the face of so much destruction and pain.
We know that You are our God who listens. Hear all of our prayers and bring them victory from Your strong hand in this time of trouble.

As David wrote in the Psalm: Some trust in chariots, and some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

So while many today are trusting in military might and power, God help them (and us) to trust in You and Your strength. We will stand firm in our trust and faith in You.

Please answer our prayers as we call upon You in these days of difficulty.

In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

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Categories
Relationships

The Need for Community in the midst of COVID and the Loss of a Job

Well, it’s been almost a year-and-a-half since I have posted on my website. For the first three years of my site (2014-16), I was faithful to post multiple times each week. Then my postings became less consistent during the next two years. And in 2019 I took a break from posting on this site, as our church began a Bible reading plan together. During that time, I chose to shift from posting here to posting to our Church Bible reading Facebook group. I planned to get back to posting here in January 2020 after we completed our Bible reading, but then I took on a new job with LifeWay in late 2019. I went through training, “hit the road” with the new work in January, and felt I was just about ready to resume posting, as I felt that I had gotten into a routine.
But then COVID hit.
And routine went out the window.

Fast-forward several weeks… into the “shelter-at-home” work routine, as we have all been struggling to figure out. And just about the time I thought I had a handle on it… on April 29th, our LifeWay Church Partner team was told that our department was being eliminated due to the economic downturn. Ummm…. wait, what?

Wow… talk about an announcement that turns your world upside-down! But of course, this just puts me in a situation like many other people. I can certainly now relate to that feeling you get when you are “let go” from a job.one person in an empty parking lot - pointing out our need for community

So I spent the past week-and-a-half getting my resume together, answering phone calls and emails about the loss of the job (and having such amazing support from everyone!), and praying about what God’s next assignment will be for us. And now that I am through with the 2019 Churchwide Bible reading plan, my late 2019 training for LifeWay, my early 2020 new work routine, my recent job loss announcement, and this last week of resume preparation… What should I do with my time? Well, I think it is time to use some time to get back into posting on the website.

So here goes…
Let me start with something I recently shared with my team that I read from Andrew Peterson’s book, Adorning The Dark, about the need for community with others. Peterson is a song-writer, and these excerpts from his book are about his own “loss of a job” when he got the call that his contract was not being renewed by his recording label.

…I got the fated phone call that I was being dropped.

Oh, how I wished Rich Mullins were still alive, just to have someone to talk to. I didn’t want to be worried about money. I wanted to be a barefoot vagabond musician who laughed his way through trouble and sang about Jesus to whomever would listen. But when you have a wife and three babies, you can’t just not think about money. I needed to pay the mortgage. I needed to pay for diapers, formula, shoes, electricity. And at the same time there was this calling, this vocation, which as far as I could tell hadn’t changed.

…in the moment I was devastated. …I can still remember the brick-in-the-gut feeling I had when the call was over, the eerie, foreboding sense that something significant had just happened which would alter the shape of my life. …I hung up the phone, took a deep breath, wiped a tear from my eye, and walked back into the studio. The guys were probably laughing at something and didn’t notice at first that my face was pale.

“I just got dropped from my label,” I told them. They stopped laughing and offered their condolences. Then after a few moments of silence someone said, “So about this guitar part. Do you want it to come in at the top of the chorus?”
And we were off and running.

…there was no time to wallow in self-pity, but I was surrounded by friends, by community, by people who told me implicitly by their involvement in my life and work that this was still worth doing, label or no label. It felt so good to walk back into that basement, roll up my sleeves, and try to craft an album about Jesus.

That’s community. They look you in the eye and remind you who you are in Christ. They reiterate your calling when you forget what it is. They step into the garden and help you weed it, help you to grow something beautiful.

…[We chose to] stay the course and keep writing the kinds of songs we believed in…. And the only way we could see [this] option working was to lock arms with one another in community. …Suddenly, label or no label, radio or no radio, we belonged to something, and that something was each other. We were no longer alone. Perhaps most important, it meant that whenever I was discouraged, I had friends who gave me courage. If I wanted to quit, someone was there to look me in the eye and tell me my songs mattered….

We all need community. I have it with the team members who are on the same journey with me now that our team has been eliminated. I have it with a group of pastors who have been my co-laborers and friends. I have it with a church family that has grown me over the past 10.5 years and has been so supportive of me now that I have lost this recent job. Who do you have community with? (If you don’t feel connected to community like Peterson talks about, I would me encourage you to connect with a local church family who will hold out both love and truth to you at the same time. They are who have provided me the most consistent community throughout my life.)

Paige and I are so very grateful for so many of you who God has placed in our lives to “lock arms” with and travel this journey called life together. Thank you for reminding us who we are in Christ, for giving us courage and support when we are discouraged, and for looking us in the eyes to remind us that our calling from the Lord matters.

Thank you for being a part of my community during this time!
Much love my friends,
Brian