I recently resigned from my job. That’s right, chucked it in, without having another job to go to. I have resigned without the safety net of knowing where I am going next.
This was not my plan. The plan was to find the next job, line it up neatly, then resign. I like my life, and my salary, to be predictable. But sometimes my life is not neat. Sometimes I get thrown a curve ball or happen upon an unexpected fork in the road. Sometimes a fog descends and I have no idea what is going to happen next.
So here I am, free-falling, without knowing where I will land. As I slide uninhibited through the air, it occurs to me that we put too much stock in safety nets. Not that safety nets are a bad idea. I think they are inherently a good idea. But sometimes we put our entire faith in safety nets. Sometimes the best thing for our faith is a little free-falling.
I like the certain security of having a permanent job. I definitely appreciate the predictability of a regular income. I like being able to plan ahead for bills and expenses based on said income. But if I’m not careful, I’ll forget that all these things are gifts from God and are signs of His provision. I’ll forget that it is God who is faithful, not my job, and certainly not my bank balance.
The world encourages us to place our trust in tangible things. It reinforces the idea that we are dependent on job markets, housing markets and the all-powerful dollar. It tells us to invest in the future, meaning, we should buy property and build our assets and save our super.
Relationships and romance are sold to us as providers of security too. Getting married and having children is (apparently) an investment in your future. A double income brings added financial security and children will (presumably) look after you in your old age. Singleness and childlessness is viewed by this world as vulnerability to future disaster.
It is countercultural to be secure in singleness, in childlessness, in unemployment. Because our security does not lie in a spouse, or children, or work, or income, or any predictable future. Our security never lay in those things; a predictable future is a myth.
Our security resides in God. That’s where my free-falling faith lies now. I have applied for new jobs and while I am reasonably confident in my ability to land another job, that is not where my faith ultimately abides. My faith cannot rely on me, because I may fail. My faith abides in Christ, as it ever has and ever will. He will not fail. It is God who provides work and money, and He will look after me now.
Free-falling faith. What a way to go.
How about you? Have there been times in your life when you have been “free-falling”? How has God looked after you during those times?