I was sitting at my desk this morning working on a contract. My screensaver came on my computer screen, flashing the words 'abundantly more', taken from this verse. I had put it on my screensaver for a couple of reasons - one, to remind me that God will bless me even more than I can think or ask, two, to remind me to ask God to expand my boundaries (see prayer of Jabez) and three, it was a subtle way of putting God in my workplace, and I thought that people would see it and ask questions. Well, reasons one and two work really well!!!
But today when it flashed up, my thoughts were 'there has to be abundantly more to my life than sitting at my desk for 8 hours a day, having very little interaction with the people around me, being bored with my work because there are so many other things I could be doing'. I don't know if that thought was a God-confirming thought, that me going part-time is so totally right, or whether it was just me and wishful thinking. But either way, I was encouraged.
A story I heard at church at the weekend about a fisherman also encouraged me in my journey home.
There was a fisherman sitting on the quay, enjoying the sunshine, relaxing. Along comes a businessman in a flashy suit and a flashy car, and says 'hey, why aren't you working?!' The fisherman replies that he has done his work for the day, caught enough fish to feed his family and a little extra to sell on so that he has money for him and his family to live on, and now he was sitting, happily relaxing in the sunshine. The business man suggested that the fisherman went out again to catch some more fish to make some more money.
"Why would I want to do that?" FM asked.
"So you can save up and buy another boat and make even more money" came the reply.
"And then what?" asked FM.
"Then you can buy another boat and make even more money and then buy an entire fleet" said the BM.
"And then what?"
"Well, you'll make so much money that you won't have to work as much and you can have some time off to relax and enjoy the sunshine", said the BM confidently. FM pauses and thinks. "And the difference from now is....?"
But today when it flashed up, my thoughts were 'there has to be abundantly more to my life than sitting at my desk for 8 hours a day, having very little interaction with the people around me, being bored with my work because there are so many other things I could be doing'. I don't know if that thought was a God-confirming thought, that me going part-time is so totally right, or whether it was just me and wishful thinking. But either way, I was encouraged.
A story I heard at church at the weekend about a fisherman also encouraged me in my journey home.
There was a fisherman sitting on the quay, enjoying the sunshine, relaxing. Along comes a businessman in a flashy suit and a flashy car, and says 'hey, why aren't you working?!' The fisherman replies that he has done his work for the day, caught enough fish to feed his family and a little extra to sell on so that he has money for him and his family to live on, and now he was sitting, happily relaxing in the sunshine. The business man suggested that the fisherman went out again to catch some more fish to make some more money.
"Why would I want to do that?" FM asked.
"So you can save up and buy another boat and make even more money" came the reply.
"And then what?" asked FM.
"Then you can buy another boat and make even more money and then buy an entire fleet" said the BM.
"And then what?"
"Well, you'll make so much money that you won't have to work as much and you can have some time off to relax and enjoy the sunshine", said the BM confidently. FM pauses and thinks. "And the difference from now is....?"
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