What do you do when life turns out to be less than what you expect? Where do you turn when every move you make seems to be the wrong one or get you no further down the road than the path you were on. I have a few good examples around me for which I am thankful but strangely that doesn't make things any better. I am fed up with this world and the million different ways that it sucks (by the way sucking is physically impossible it can only blow). Let me explain a little more about my situation.....
I have been out of college now for almost three years. I graduated with a double major in two different aviation fields and a general business minor. Unfortunately I graduated too late, and so much as people tell you that college prepares you for the rest of your life/career. I walked out of school with a flimsy piece of paper with out enough knowledge, skills or experience to make a living for myself.
I bit the bullet and dove into something that I didn't think that I wanted to do i.e. become a flight instructor, but at the time it was and still is my only option. I got my first job at a summer camp in Delaware and I fell in love with the simple joy of flying again and found a new amazement with watching students grow, learn and take over. At the end of the camp I returned to my Alma Mater and started instructing at the institution that trained me. Somehow by the grace of God I was able to support my new wife for just over a year and a half while she finished her degree, however, I wasn't making enough to truly live. I was still living unpredictable paycheck to unpredictable paycheck.
This past April I applied for a position with a multinational company and was accepted into another flight instructor position half way across the country. The phrase "the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence" comes to mind. In the initial offer there was mention of 35 hours of work per week. After reporting for standardization I find that it is not a guarantee of 35 hours but up to 35 hours which is a huge difference and not something that I would have left a wonderful support group of friends that I had built up in Michigan for.
But still the question looms out there. What do you do now? At the new Church that God has provided for my wife and I to attend we are going through the works of Paul, specifically the book of Romans and Philippians. To paraphrase, when going through trials we should be thankful because those trials produce in us perseverance and that perseverance produces character. Biblical? Yes. Easy to say? Definitely..... So why is the benefit of a better, stronger character such a let down?
If you have the answer to that question I would love to know it.
That last verse you mentioned is actually something that I've been working through this past week as well. I've decided that the whole point of that verse is not about the character - character would be a disappointment because the verse does not end there. I remember on a mission trip/excursion with God to the Smoky mountains I repeated that verse over and over again but for me it went something like this: "Perseverance produces character, character produces something else and that something else better be worth all this." Only now am I really becoming able to appreciate that "something else," which is in fact hope.
ReplyDeleteHere's the Truth: Romans 5:3-5 3Not only so, but we[a] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
See I think perseverance grinds out the rough spots in our maturity so we become more Christ-like as we prove our faith exists by persevering in good works and fruit. That creates a good character in us. And THAT produces a hope (of eternal life with God) that is secured by God through Jesus's sacrifice. But if we don't persevere in our faith and the hard things of life, we will fall away from our faith and J.C. and we will lose sight of our hope.