Unemployment And Stuart Smalley

So, Unemployment at 53 years old, … what’s it like?

Well, I think I can answer that now for those of you who have had the blessing of avoiding this experience.

Saturday Night Live had a character played by Al Franken named Stuart Smalley that kinda portrays how your mind plays games with you after you have been out of work for a while. If you don’t know what I’m talking about click here.

Stuart Smalley: I deserve good things. I’m entitled to my share of happiness. I refuse to beat myself up. I am an attractive person. I am fun to be with.
Narrator: Daily affirmations with Stuart Smalley. Stuart Smalley is a caring nurturer, a member of several 12 step programs, but not a licensed therapist.
Stuart Smalley: I’m going to do a terrific show today and I’m going to help people, because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and dog gone it, people like me.

Regardless of whether or not you believe anything Stuart says is true, ... this is what your mornings can be like in your head after you recieve a total of 0 returned phone calls or returned emails from potential employers after you jump through the hoops of the application process. You need a bit of Stuart Smalley in you to get through each day.

When a potential employer doesn’t return your call or respond to your resume, … you STILL know you can do that job. However, a prolonged period of unemployment will bring about a need for a self-worth booster shot. Over a period of time your sense of confidence drops. You develop feelings of being alone in the world (even when your family is focused on your care). You wonder if you’ll ever walk the ridges of mountains again. Will you ever feel productive? Eventually, you are broken. You really can’t talk about it too much. You sit quiet. You remain happy for good news for everyone around you … but you feel like you are worthless and matter to no one outside your direct family or friends. You’re on a raft with no pole.

I can go on and on with more detail here! But I won’t because that’s not where I choose to live. I am not on that raft.

I want you to know that I am experiencing the pain of these types of feelings. In other words, unemployment really isn’t the lark I may be showing on my face at a given moment. It really is unemployment … even if I am taking pictures and doing many things I used to do in my spare time. I'm back in school on two educational fronts. I am making myself available for assisting those in need in my local church.

I, myself, am in need right now … but I haven’t been forgotten. God has placed people in my life that have been a huge help and God is using them daily. God has already worked out circumstances for our good as a family even with very limited income for this period of our lives. God took care of the high cost of medical needs for our daughter. God used a man this week to assist us with a plumbing disaster.

However, it is true, at this moment, we remain in an ongoing sense of need and I feel sidelined in the game.

So, where do I go with all these feelings?

I will end this post by saying that I go straight to the Word of God and to His promises for me … because they are from a higher authority than world opinion.

I pray that the Lord will lift your heart with these words below so that you might be an encouragement to those who hurt around you.

God bless. NikonSniper Steve

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe." Proverbs 18:10

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

"Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?" 1 Peter 3:13

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?" Psalm 27:1

"When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet." Proverbs 3:24

"For You have been a refuge for me, a tower of strength against the enemy." Psalm 61:3

“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:13-14

“Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him.” Psalm 37:4-7

“I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD.” Psalm 40:1-3

“Those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” Isaiah 40:31

“Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.” Hebrews 10:35-37

"My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." John 15:7

"All things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." Matthew 21:22