UPFRONT March 6, 2006 Issue

A safe path

MAIKE BYRD, CHILDREN'S EDITOR

My girlfriend's husband, Bert, lost his job in the computer field four years ago. He's one of at least a dozen highly skilled people I know of in their late 40s and 50s who've been laid off from well-paying professional jobs in the past few years. None of them has an income anywhere close to what they used to have. Bert is driving delivery trucks part time now. And when I talked with his wife the other day, she said he was feeling pretty discouraged. There were fears of what the future would hold for him. Fears about being too old to be hired, about financial security, about loss of purpose and usefulness.

I've been thinking a lot about Bert, and my heart goes out to him and the many others who may be living lives of quiet desperation and fear. We all wish we could control our future and map out our path safely.

I remember a time of uncertainity in my own work situation, when a perceptive fellow church member invited me to think about a Bible verse in the book of Job. It talks about a path that "no bird of prey knows, and the falcon's eye has not seen" (28:7, New Revised Standard Version). I came to understand that there is a life and career path for all of us that's free of any "preying," threatening forces such as unemployment, age, poverty, competition. It's a path paved by God. We may not know for sure where we are going. But we can know God. And we can know that our future is held safely in the divine Infinite's sustaining love.

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