Unemployment and hope

Dear Friends in Christ -

St. Paul's is a place where there are a lot of folks who work hard and don't complain a lot. But I strongly suspect that some of you are really struggling. Partially I suspect this because it seems that this part of Fairfield County is on the back side of the economic wave: it seems that things don't get really bad here until after they've been really bad in other places for a while. Even as things start to get better in other places, we're still seeing job losses here. I talked to two people last week who have been served notice that they will lose their jobs in the next few weeks.

Also, for many of you, you've been patching it together for a while - with extra jobs and using money from savings, but the stress is now starting to catch up with you. And on the heels of stress comes hopelessness.

If I needed external confirmation of all this, I found it on the front page of the NYTimes. The stresses and strains of unemployment and underemployment are catching up with folks across the country. In reading the article, I could hear the voices of those people - and I could see with the eyes of my heart your pursed lips and weary eyes. You understand because you're living it. And you would like someone to know, but you don't want to complain.

I understand. I really do. My husband has a job that ends in May. At this point, there's no other work in sight. Like you, I'm not complainin'; I'm just sayin' . . .

So, where do we find hope??? I don't know about you, but I need two kinds of hope - the hope the leans into and looks for big things - the celebration of Christmas, a new job for my husband in mid 2010 - AND the hope that just feeds me day to day, like a steady IV drip.

Today, I found a glimmer of hope in today's daily office readings: God's promise to be with me if I invite Him (Rev. 3:20), not just to drop by with a few rah-rah words of encouragement, but to STAY with me in my day to day life.

I need that - and I wanted to remind you of God's promise this morning, in case you need it, too.

Faithfully with you,
Janet+