Sunday, April 20, 2008

Job hunting

Did you know that, while there are available jobs out there, they are near impossible to find, because every job-hunting tool is eaten alive by 'Work from home' 'Fire your boss' or other mostly scam postings? Contrary to Academic Egyptology, pyramid schemes are alive and well. Just remember that Pharoah was really the only one who profited...

Some work-at-home things are legit, if you have the time or personal contacts to make it work. For example, Ann sells Mary Kay cosmetics. She doesn't make a lot of money, because our circle of friends includes 3 other Mary Kay ladies, but she makes a little. (Side note: need something of a cosmetic nature? www.marykay.com/annhibbard ) There is a great group of folks that do this thing called Homemade Gourmet. If I had time, I would do that. It's seasoning and spice mixes and things that make dinner great. I highly recommend the potatoes. And the cheesecake. And the tortilla soup mix, and the chipotle rub, and the Grandmother's Sunday Roast, and the Italian Mozzarella meatloaf mix, and...well, you get the point. My big problem is that I know probably 10 people that would be interested in buying this stuff. And the 10 people basically know each other.

So, the moral of the story is, if you think you'll ever need a job, you need to have lots of friends, which you won't have time for once you get a job!

Creation

I can't help but be awed at God's creation, and yet realize how much I miss of it. I sit in the back of my truck, the fearsome steel beast forged by man, and looking at the stars, and not seeing most of them because of all the greatness of mankind's constructions around me. I'm so surrounded by the workings of man, and have so embraced them, that I can't focus my life and attentions on the things of God, to do the work of God, lest GMAC come calling to collect. Or Citi, or Wells Fargo, or Mastercard, or any of a small host of others. I want to free myself to follow God, to do what He has called. I want to be what I was created to be.

So, how? I will ask God for guidance, and follow his directions. I will seek his forgiveness for chaining myself to earthly things, then seek to fulfill the commitments I have made. Meanwhile, I will trust in God.

Now, does this mean that I won't go to work? That I will sit home, not go to the job I have, not seek the new one I need to pay all of my bills? Certainly not. I will, though, realize that the God who has made me is much more capable of guiding me to it then my mindless flipping through Monster.com or Hotjobs or Careerbuilder will find it. (On the side, all of those sites should move all work-at-home opportunities to a separate list, so that people needing jobs can actually find them.)

What I will do is realize that God's plan for me is beyond my undoing, that He who knit together the constellations of the sky is not going to fall apart because of me...

I know we all know that, but it certainly helped me to be reminded...

(last edit corrected lousy grammar in closing sentences...)

Saturday, April 19, 2008

It's been a little longer...

It's been a little longer than I had planned between blog posts. This was how the post I intended to finish two weeks ago started off, so I guess the appropriate opening now will be that it's been a little longer than a little longer than I had planned between blog posts. Why?


Well, I guess that part of the problem is there's not much to tell. I started blogging to share what is going on in my life, what I think about it, what's going on in the world, and what I think about that. There's not much different in my life or in anything going on in the world.

And, now, of course, it's been even longer. Lady Julian of Norwich once said of following God that 'All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of being will be well.' Let's hope she was right.

Sermon Add-on for March 10

 Continuing the use of Artificial Intelligence to try and generate discussion questions from the sermon, here's what it gave me this wee...