Prisons, Palaces, and Perspectives

 In 2019 the job market flew open to her and she felt as if the Lord told her to work and save. 

She had no idea that soon a worldwide pandemic would hit- no one did. 

At the onset of the pandemic, she lost her job and had to lean heavily on those savings she had accumulated the year before. They were sufficient. She was able to pay her bills. 

And then she hit the end of the pile. 

In one of those "God pulls us through in the last moment" scenarios, my pastor finished telling this answered prayer by letting us know that, in the last inning, she was given her job back. 

Her savings were just enough to sustain her until the end. 

As the congregation agreed with "amen"-s and "glory to God"-s I thought to myself, perspective. 

She never went without. 

She never had to ask another for a loan. 

All her needs were met. 

But still...

Her savings were gone. 

All that extra work, all that cushion, all that financial stability. 

Gone.

Was the miracle that she got to the end of her savings, God stepped in and she got her job back just in time, or was the miracle that she didn't walk away bitter, wondering why she had to work so hard and now there was "nothing to show". Nothing being said with salt. 

She still had her house. She was not in debt. But...

She didn't have that "bonus money" for a trip to the beach, or with which to remodel her kitchen. 

Perspective: is life happening to you, or for you? 

Joseph went from the prisons in Egypt to second-in-command, lesser only than Pharaoh. A prison to a palace. Was his time in prison (or slavery, for that matter) all for naught, or was it a place of holy preparation? 

Someone needs to hear this: perspective.      

This pandemic did not happen to us, it happen for us. There is opportunity here.

Opportunity does not negate the hurt, the loss, nor any of the difficulties which came alongside the Corona-Virus pandemic. But here is truth, everyone, EVERYONE of us was touched by it...but it did not destroy us all, and this has little-to-nothing to do with finances, comfort, or even health, this has EVERYTHING to do with perspective.

   Perspective.