Six Months
Yesterday marked six months since our family packed up and left Montreal. I remember the day like it was just a few weeks ago...
I remember when the nerves starting kicking in as I realized the huge leap of faith we were taking in accepting this new position. Leaving a great job where you're already established and know the ins and outs for something completely unknown and unfamiliar definitely kept me awake several nights! Was I doing the right thing? Would my family suffer financially because of this switch in career? Those questions would hit me when I least expected them. The reality of the entire move really hit on my last day at work at CGI.
Walking out of that office with the small box of my personal belongings was weird. Here was this little box that represented nearly 15 years of my work career. In those years I must of written tens of thousands of lines of code, spent multiple days in meetings and on phones, spent thousands of dollars on hotels and airfare and written thousands of pages of documentation and emails. What was interesting was that the only things that ended up in that box were pictures of my family, drawings my kids had made for my office, a Bible I had in my desk and a few little odds and ends. The box had no computer books, no sample code, no CDs, no documents, no customer invoices, no certificates, no appraisal reports, no email backups. There was nothing in that box that showed what I did. That little box simply showed who I am.
The reality that hit was that it does not matter one bit was I do. What matters most to me is who I am!
In the six months I've been here at Woodside I'm constantly reminded of this. God loves me for me, not what I do. My wife and kids love me for me, not what I do. Their love drives me to love them more. If people see in me my love for God and my family yet snicker at what I do for a living then I'm perfectly OK with that.
I love the work that I'm doing now! I enjoyed the consulting life but I never loved it. I was never as passionate for it as I am for the work that is being done here as an associate pastor. I've never enjoyed computer training as much as I'm enjoying my seminary studies. I've never felt like I was doing what I was created to do in IT as I feel like am I now.
Even though I LOVE this work... if God called me out of it, I'd be just fine with that too. It's not about what I do... but who I am. I'm just a 35 year old guy who loves God, loves his wife, loves his kids, loves his friends, loves his family, loves his church, and loves his neighbours.
That's been the neatness thing I've learned in the last six months!
I remember when the nerves starting kicking in as I realized the huge leap of faith we were taking in accepting this new position. Leaving a great job where you're already established and know the ins and outs for something completely unknown and unfamiliar definitely kept me awake several nights! Was I doing the right thing? Would my family suffer financially because of this switch in career? Those questions would hit me when I least expected them. The reality of the entire move really hit on my last day at work at CGI.
Walking out of that office with the small box of my personal belongings was weird. Here was this little box that represented nearly 15 years of my work career. In those years I must of written tens of thousands of lines of code, spent multiple days in meetings and on phones, spent thousands of dollars on hotels and airfare and written thousands of pages of documentation and emails. What was interesting was that the only things that ended up in that box were pictures of my family, drawings my kids had made for my office, a Bible I had in my desk and a few little odds and ends. The box had no computer books, no sample code, no CDs, no documents, no customer invoices, no certificates, no appraisal reports, no email backups. There was nothing in that box that showed what I did. That little box simply showed who I am.
The reality that hit was that it does not matter one bit was I do. What matters most to me is who I am!
In the six months I've been here at Woodside I'm constantly reminded of this. God loves me for me, not what I do. My wife and kids love me for me, not what I do. Their love drives me to love them more. If people see in me my love for God and my family yet snicker at what I do for a living then I'm perfectly OK with that.
I love the work that I'm doing now! I enjoyed the consulting life but I never loved it. I was never as passionate for it as I am for the work that is being done here as an associate pastor. I've never enjoyed computer training as much as I'm enjoying my seminary studies. I've never felt like I was doing what I was created to do in IT as I feel like am I now.
Even though I LOVE this work... if God called me out of it, I'd be just fine with that too. It's not about what I do... but who I am. I'm just a 35 year old guy who loves God, loves his wife, loves his kids, loves his friends, loves his family, loves his church, and loves his neighbours.
That's been the neatness thing I've learned in the last six months!
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