I've been traveling the Google maps highway to revisit a neighborhood I have lived in a few times in the rather distant past. Some things have changed (missing buildings and businesses) and some things have stayed the same (neighborhood anchored by University). I don't imagine I'd run into anyone I know if I wandered around there today.
But this has lead me to think about the wide range of place and jobs and social connections I've experienced over several decades. I'm fascinated by how often things I thought were rather frustrating or even crumby were laying foundations for experiences I had no inkling would be useful in my future.
For instance, I had temp jobs with banks, insurance companies, mutual fund companies and commodities related businesses. Each was interesting and added to a body of knowledge that served me well when, many years later, I worked as a Certified Financial Planner for a national firm. And along the way I met people who were dealing with special needs kids, deaths of spouses, crises of faith, family challenges, and myriad of other challenges with varying degrees of grace and a willing to share a bit of their own faith, hope and experience. Over the years I have had many occasions to be deeply grateful for their candor and generosity.
So, as I set out on my day tomorrow, I'm going to do so with a renewed awareness that God sends blessings wrapped in many different packages and each person I meet may have an idea or observation or a bit of information that I'll find helpful somewhere along my life's journey. I intend to pay attention.
And I'll take a moment to thank God for all the interesting, quirky, brave, wise, kind, frustrating, and widely diverse folks God has arranged for me to meet, to learn from, to appreciate later -- even if not in the moment!
Faithful God, thank You for all the people you are sending into my life exactly when I most need them. AMEN
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The one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention. Diane Sawyer
But this has lead me to think about the wide range of place and jobs and social connections I've experienced over several decades. I'm fascinated by how often things I thought were rather frustrating or even crumby were laying foundations for experiences I had no inkling would be useful in my future.
For instance, I had temp jobs with banks, insurance companies, mutual fund companies and commodities related businesses. Each was interesting and added to a body of knowledge that served me well when, many years later, I worked as a Certified Financial Planner for a national firm. And along the way I met people who were dealing with special needs kids, deaths of spouses, crises of faith, family challenges, and myriad of other challenges with varying degrees of grace and a willing to share a bit of their own faith, hope and experience. Over the years I have had many occasions to be deeply grateful for their candor and generosity.
So, as I set out on my day tomorrow, I'm going to do so with a renewed awareness that God sends blessings wrapped in many different packages and each person I meet may have an idea or observation or a bit of information that I'll find helpful somewhere along my life's journey. I intend to pay attention.
And I'll take a moment to thank God for all the interesting, quirky, brave, wise, kind, frustrating, and widely diverse folks God has arranged for me to meet, to learn from, to appreciate later -- even if not in the moment!
Faithful God, thank You for all the people you are sending into my life exactly when I most need them. AMEN
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The one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention. Diane Sawyer
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