“Time flies when we’re having fun.”
That’s similar to a common saying. But, we feel obligated to alter it a bit further: “Time sure goes fast when one is always busy.” Although majority of the speediness has been exhilarating, too.
Most in our generation can reflect grade school days that seemed to drag by. Adulthood appeared long into the distance, as our parents were “so old,” and grandparents completely “ancient.”
That was “just yesterday,” and now we’re there. It became most apparent to us on the day after Christmas when we walked into the office. Exactly 40 years earlier, shortly after college graduation, we started our first “real job,” away from that of family’s businesses.
Details of the “first day of work,” remain engrained in our mind. So nervous, a redneck cowboy in a “big city job,” it seemed, surrounded by all of the tenured employees we didn’t know, in a profession we really didn’t understand either.
For weeks, there was constant worry whether we were capable of succeeding in the vocation, despite working as hard and dedicated as a then-young cowboy knew how.
But, we survived, and even thrived, by definition of some. Our family grew, ranch interests expanded, horse operations developed as we’d only dreamed they might, and people around the Midwest became acquaintances and friends.
Oh, there were ups and down that we can hardly recall, with a false inward security: “How can life get any better?”
Then, after 36 years and seven months, the door slammed as we were rudely informed: “You’re fired.”
About as naïve as the day we came there, and still incomprehensible, it seemed a joke of sorts. “How can that be? We love our job. Nobody could be more devoted than we are.”
However, while taking a break from riding a colt, just four days after being fired, we received an unsolicited, surprising call from another business to “come work for us.”
Hesitant at first, we accepted, and it’s provided an exciting life’s chapter that we could have never envisioned.
Reminds us of Job 25 1:2: “God is sovereign. Everything fits and works in God’s plan.” Because, Jeremiah 29:11: “I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”
+++ALLELUIA+++