Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.
Tom called me from his cell phone at 3:30 and said he was in the driveway and could I help him carry some things inside the house?
Three-thirty?! What was he doing home so early, I asked. "Is anything wrong?"
"Well, there's something not too right."
So I ran out to the car, reached for the bags inside the opened window and jokingly asked, "Well, you weren't fired were you?"
Tom replied, "Actually, I was laid off."
Oh dear. My stomach dropped. "Tom, you're not joking, are you? You wouldn't joke about this would you?"
No, turns out he wasn't kidding. He was in a little group of guys laid off today. The company is downsizing to just a tiny skeleton crew.
My first thought? "Breathe. Breathe. Stay calm. Save the tears for later."
And then, "This doesn't happen to us! Not after what amounts to 22 years with the same company." (Technically it's not the same company, but as close as it gets.) "This happens to other people!"
But it has happened. And if it's happened to you, I now know how you feel. In the nearly 32 years of our marriage, Tom has never been laid off. Never been without a job.
Sigh.
So right now we are all about scribbling numbers on backs of envelopes and what can we cut back on and --?? Well, you know.
And remember how I was complaining about this farm? Well, forget all that, ok? Just ignore those posts because, right now, at this moment, I am so grateful for this roof over our heads. This home place. This place we, hopefully, can pay off somehow so it will be ours (fortunately, we don't owe too much on it).
Wow. Change. It can happen in a moment.... in as long as it takes for someone you've worked with for 17 years to call you into his office and to, shakily, tell you he's sorry, but ..........
Everything will be all right (I keep telling myself). Please pray that we will make all the right decisions, ok? And that we won't become all negative and say a bunch of doubtful stuff. Tom and I so believe in the power of life and death being in the tongue... and we so want to honor God with our words. Even now.
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Proverbs 3:5
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding."
