Keeping an eye on the prize

I'm trying to post here more often, but those efforts ebb and wane with the tide. The plain and simple truth is that I have more to do than time available and the blog is a low priority. I'm working on a couple of essays that will be posted when they are finished, but I cannot offer any kind of timeline for those. I have a lot of academic work to do right now. When that is complete my blogging can, probably, become more regular.

The Good Lord has been moving powerfully in my life for the past year to year and a half. It's been pretty bumpy, but I think things are smoothing out a bit. When God offers change and begins moving you out of your comfort zone you can expect a little pain and suffering. Just keep your head up and your eye on the prize (1 Col 24-27). Keep moving one step at a time.

This is just the beginning of Ritch, Chapter 3. Starting it with a little conflict helps to keep the story interesting. How will the chapter end? What exciting new journey does Christ have in store for me? Hard to tell. I'm sad to leave Connecticut, and I will miss my family and friends there tremendously. Generally speaking, however, I was a bit unhappy there. Perhaps "unfulfilled", rather than "unhappy", is a better word. I prayed the Lord would open a door that would radically change my life and take me outside my comfort zone knowing and accepting the price could be high. He answered the prayer by giving me a new career that's nothing like the old career and is moving me to a part of the country to which I would have never considered moving. But I'm not nervous, I'm excited. There are other things afoot, but nothing that will be posted here. Could that tiny spec be a light at the end of the tunnel? Lord, I pray it it.

Well, I'm a little nervous, but not about change. I've decided to give away nearly everything I own except what will fit in my car. I will store a small amount of stuff until next spring, but only what will fit into a cargo van. So I'm nervous about being able to get rid of everything, about getting all the loose ends tied up in the short period of time I'll have before I leave for Illinois. I return home in late September and start the new job in early November. A month is a short amount of time for something this big. If worst came to worst I could probably delay the start date a bit, but I'm keeping that option off the table for now.

Let me explain a bit the miracle that I even was hired to this new job. This is a great job, too. I have less than a year experience in my new career field and every place I looked for a job had a requirement of a minimum of 12 months experience. In my own unit with the Connecticut Air National Guard I could not get a temporary full-time entry level position doing exactly what I do there every month, because, according to HR, I'm not qualified to do what I do there part-part time anyway. My supervisor forwarded to me the vacancy announcement for a experienced position with the IL ANG. With no expectation that I was qualified or competitive for the position I completed the application because we both felt it would be good experience to go through the process. After two telephone interviews and a conversation with my CT ANG supervisor they offered the job and I accepted. How weird is that? Phone interview only? Really? How does it happen that in one state I'm not qualified for a temporary, entry-level position, yet in another state I'm not only qualified for a permanent position, but get what amounts to a promotion in the process? God happens is what I think.

This is a pretty long post, as happens when the posts are few and far between. If you've not been to my website lately I've remodeled it. It has a brand new look. You can see it here: http://www.outpost42.net.