2 Weeks After Mark Lost His Job

December 09, 2012

2 Weeks After Mark Lost His Job

2 weeks after Mark lost his job, I gave the following testimony at my Bible study group, Women of the Word on February 23, 2012, as we were in the midst of studying Beth Moore's "Daniel" :

HOW GOD HAS BEEN SHOWING ME DANIEL

God has been showing us the book of Daniel for almost a year now. It started when the facilitator of our Wednesday night group, Amanda P., announced we’d be starting it in the fall. I’d just read the book earlier in the year so I was excited to hear more about it and really explore what it all meant.

A few months later, God allowed me to finally realize a dream I’d had for a few years, owning a kiln so I could start working with glass. If you know me at all, it won’t surprise you to know that I went on Facebook and said, “I’ve finally got a kiln and I think I should name it! Any suggestions?” My favorite answer came from Barbara W. who suggested I name it after one of the brothers in the book of Daniel, chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach or Abednego. What I found so interesting is Meshach’s Babylonian name was Meshael which sounds too much like Michelle to ignore!

As I began working with glass, I felt God teaching me so much in my work. When I first started training with other glass artisans and trying to figure out what MY voice was in my work, I’d frequently get cut and much of my work was a big mess. What I have come to learn though is that WE are like dichroic glass: Sometimes we cut, our edges are sharp, we can easily break and we have to go in the fire to truly reflect the light we have inside. I try to be prayerful about the images I grind into my glass and the two images God’s placed on my heart most recently are trees and dandelions. The trees may have deep roots in this earth but we continue to grow heavenward. The dandelions tell us that people/circumstances/feelings may try to mow us down but we WILL come up again...and with one breath from God we can be sent to grow far and wide. It’s a great power in something so delicate.

AN OLIVE TREE

A JOSHUA TREE

DANDELIONS

(*please, read note below)

So here we are, these fragile pieces of glass and our creator puts us in the fire. It’s where the hope is. The fire serves to remake us and when we come out, our edges are softer, we’re more resistant to breaking, and the brilliance of our sparkling light comes through, God’s light.

But God wasn’t done showing us Daniel yet.

Shortly after I got my kiln, it was announced that my Bible study group, Women of the Word, was going to be studying Beth Moore’s Daniel. Again, excited about going deeper in this book but now I’m starting to wonder why I’m seeing so much of Daniel.

But God still wasn’t done showing us Daniel and he was getting ready to put us in the midst of chapter 3 in a big way.

A few weeks ago, my husband went to a Men’s Conference and Dr. Bob Richburg spoke about his 2-year trial in the furnace. Mark came home from that conference very encouraged about how God can see someone through the fire.

At this point, however, I knew in my spirit our own time in the furnace was coming and I told Mark we needed to prepare ourselves. We needed to prepare the resolve in our faith and make firm decisions about who we are as Christians. Something was coming but we didn’t know what it was.

And God was still not done showing us Daniel. (If you’d seen my Facebook page during this time, you would have seen me share this build up, wondering what God wanted us to know!)

A few days later, Marianne started the morning asking me to read a comic from her Veggie Tales Bible and which one was it? The story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. She hadn’t done that before and since that day, she’s asked that her Bible be in her school backpack. In that week, chapter 3 in Daniel all came together: In Wednesday night, Women of the Word, the Men’s Conference and now my daughter.

2 weeks ago our furnace came in the form of Mark being terminated from his job. Within 24 hours, we lost the main source of income in our family and our medical insurance. As a stay-at home mom, you can see how this became devastating news very quickly. – But God had prepared us.

I must confess to you though that immediately after, I felt the enemy telling me not to tell anyone and to just figure it out on our own. He wanted us to feel embarrassed about the situation, to be just another statistic but THAT was his lie. What he really wanted to do was isolate us from the prayers of our church family so he’d be free to work on us. He wanted to work on our self-esteem but instead we look for the blessings and we find the joy. He wanted to work on the strength of our marriage but I told Mark, “I may not be great when the temperature drops but when there’s a blizzard, I’m your girl” and we find the joy. He wanted to keep us in fear about an unknown future but we know that Jesus is waiting in every tomorrow. God prepared us. And we continue to find the joy.

As I’m in the midst of considering to NOT tell, God reminded me of what I’d told my six year old: If an adult ever tells you to keep a secret and it has nothing to do with a party or a present, that is your FIRST signal to OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND SPEAK OUT.

---And so I am. This IS a trial for our family. We are IN the furnace! Not having medical insurance freaks me out! What I will tell you though is every time I speak about this, I feel like I’m winning a heavenly battle! And because I’ve been speaking out, our family has been covered with prayer, encouragement and eyes and ears in the community with folks giving us leads on a job. These are all the things that the enemy tried to keep us from.

Speaking out has given us a sense of hope, keeps us pro-active and has given us a burning desire to learn all that God would have us learn in this season. It’s been God’s reset button for our family. We are learning to enjoy each other’s company again, we’re learning to be better stewards with what we have, the material world is loosening its grip on us and we KNOW that God doesn’t define our value by what we do. These are all things we want to carry into the NEXT season. As Beth Moore says, I want God to scar me JUST ENOUGH.

My feeling is that God prepared us with Daniel not only to let us know that we were getting ready to step in the furnace but to assure us that he’s in here with us and we will leave without smelling like smoke. I don’t know what this is all going to look like, if the heat will be turned up higher or how long it’s going to take but I do trust that God has laid out a path for us and if we have to take the scenic route to get to His goal, then we’ll take our turn in the fire.

What I want you to take away from this testimony is this: If the enemy is trying to keep you from speaking out about anything in your life, prayerfully consider DOING IT ANYWAY. What prayers and blessings are being kept from you by remaining silent? What person is being kept from the ministry of your experience? Find a small group; find ONE PERSON that you can give it to. We are a body of believers for a reason, to walk through life shoulder to shoulder, so let someone bless you today.

Please take the hand of the person to your left and to your right. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this group of believers before me. We thank you for the person to the left and the person to the right. You have made believers working together a force to be reckoned with, Father, but the enemy would have us think that being vulnerable is something to be ashamed of. But we know your truth, Father, that in our weakness it is YOUR strength, grace and mercy that shines through. Father, may you be glorified in our trials. Thank you for all the ways you bless us in the fire and may our eyes be opened to your perfect will, that we may walk the path you have laid before us. In Jesus’ precious and mighty name, amen.

A FOLLOW-UP NOTE about the trees and dandelions in glass: On Friday, November 16th, I woke up to my first morning at my Walk to Emmaus. I woke up just before the sun started coming up and being by the window I could see outside. You know, an oak tree's branches in shadow look like big, full dandelions. As I continued to look, one of the branches of that tree looked like a mirror image of the dandelions I'd drawn. --- And because I was looking through a window, it was a dandelion, on a tree, in glass. This is what I drew in my journal that morning: