Shake the dust off my feet? Not me! I cared too much about my work to leave with a bad attitude.

“Think about it,” she said. “Maybe it just means it’s time to start something new.”

I did have a secret

ambition. For years I had spent my free time working on a historical novel.

Vacation days were filled with writing conferences and museum visits. Maybe this loss was God’s way of making my other dream possible, the dream of being a writer.

But even the lure of other possibilities didn’t take away the agony of losing

my job. Every day I clung to the comfort of my devotional book. Each day the assigned Scripture spoke to me and gave me strength.

It would soon be over. I

investigated unemployment insurance and perused the want ads. So what if I had been employee of the month? Now I was unemployed, unsure what my future held.

My boss called me one

afternoon. “When is your last day?” “March 19th.” He should know. “It doesn’t make sense for you to quit in the middle of the month.”I wanted to remind him that I hadn’t quit. Maybe he had changed his mind and would let me keep my job. My heart pounded with anticipation. “Would you consider working through the end of March?”

My heart sank. Everything in me wanted to refuse, to throw it back in his face. He hadn’t thought through the merger of the departments and wasn’t ready for me to leave. Surely God couldn’t expect this of me. Each working day was agony. I wasn’t sure that I could do it for two more weeks.

I felt God’s promise that He would help me, gulped back the anger and agreed to stay until the end of

the month while sending up a desperate prayer for strength. — beliefnet.com