The God of Everything

I recently was laid off (uh, actually fired) from my job that I had enjoyed. I was actually blind-sided really. The reasons that she put doesn’t hold a lot of water because when I was talking to some of friends, who are also my references, they laughed. My boss had said that I couldn’t work with others and that I didn’t have the right judgement to work with teens and adults with disabilities. Hmmmm, let me unpack that for a minute. I was a Special Ed teacher for 15.5 years. I worked with ALL kinds of people in order to help each child reach their potential. I had nonverbal students starting to talk and non-readers begin to read fluently. I was tough but fair and loving. Each of my students knew that they could always get hugs and high fives and praise at any time. I did nothing different when I worked with teens and adults with disabilities. However, I really think that letting me go was a ploy to hire someone else to my spot but I’m actually starting to be okay with it. Why? I know that God’s got this. (Related post: God’s Got This)

So, what does what I’m going through with have to do with us having a God who knows us inside and out? Apparently, everything, actually.

Let’s go to the beginning (or the Old Testament, if you will). In the beginning God formed everything around us and then He formed man and woman to have dominion over everything that He had made. In the Old Testament, God seemed more distant to His people. Oh, don’t get me wrong, they knew that they were His chosen people but He was up there and, well, we were down here on Earth. The connection was there but it was like talking and writing to someone that you’ve never laid eyes on.

Then, in the New Testament, God came to Earth in the form of His Son, Jesus. He was present here among us. He walked and talked with us. He laughed and cried like us. He felt joy and sorrow like us. He felt encouragement and anger like us. So, we go from a God who was loving but seemed distant to a God who loved us enough to BE with us in human form and He also experienced everything that we as human do. Then, of course, we can’t forget that He also suffered and died for us so that we can be with Him in Heaven when our time on Earth is done. That’s a TRULY loving God, for sure.

So, going back to my story of recent happening, I spoke of that so that you can understand and know that we have a God who is with us in every single aspect of our lives: the good, the bad and the ugly. He’s got this for me just like He has anything and everything that you are going through as well. He really is in the details of our lives. (Related post: God’s in the Details)

So, what did I learn from this? Everything. I’ve learned and am still learning that God has a purpose and a path for me. Now, the path that I thought that He wanted me on has changed. During this process, I’m learning to really, really, really LET GO and LET GOD. I’m learning to have absolute trust (I’m human, so make that actually 95% trust and 5% worry) in Him. I can say with certainty that I’ve come a long, long way with knowing that God has this and I’m just along for the ride. He has a plan. I’ve never doubted that. I’m also realizing and understanding that our God never fails to show up on time.

What can you learn from this? God truly understands and loves us but He wants us to trust Him in our journey in life. It’s never the straight line that we sometimes think that it should be. Sometimes we’re in the hills of life then we will go down to the valleys. (Related post: Traversing the hills and valleys of life with grace). He’s with us in both. He’s with us in each hill and valley that we encounter. He’s in the everything that life throws our way. So, my advice? Trust yourself to Him. Trust me, as scary as this time is for me? I’m starting to develop more peace than I had before this happened. Crazy, huh? So, I pray that what I’m going through helps make whatever you’re going through, not seem so bad. Know that God loves you and He will get you where you need to be. Trust Him in the process. You might just be really, really surprised at the results!