Finishing Well in 2012

To start, I have to go back to 2011. I was blessed with the chance to go back to school for a semester before being blessed with a full time job with the Wyoming Air National Guard. I was pursuing a music degree, which I still plan on pursuing in the near future. God brought the opportunity to apply for this position, and for a while I wrestled with whether I was supposed to stay in school or work and go back later. I finally came to a place of peace knowing that whichever I was supposed to do, God would give me a clear sign. Well, I was blessed with the full time job. I knew it was good for me because it was a way to provide for my wife and, then, first daughter, Hana. I started the job and things were awesome for quite a while. Then a little bit down the line, somewhere around the beginning of 2012, I started noticing some differences.
I started having issues at work that were, to say the least, making me look pretty bad. It seemed like I was not doing as well as I started out to when I first got the job. My relationships with some of the people I worked with started going sour because of my performance, and my leadership wasn’t the greatest either. I clashed really badly with one guy who was pretty hard on me in the first place. Higher ranker and seemingly arrogant with his promotion, I had a really hard time being at work with him or anyone else. It got to the point where I just dreaded going to work. Part of it was because I thought I was being treated unfairly, which in some aspects I was. Military life is much different that civilian life. But my attitude wasn’t the greatest either. I just wanted to be done. But I had nowhere else to go!! What was I going to do?
Then God spoke up! And it was, at what seemed to be, the most inopportune time. It was like He was late because I was already at my lowest of lows with work and I wanted to give up; even though I prayed for strength. Turns out that was the best time for Him to show up! Then He gave me a word. A word that would give me what I needed to endure and overcome the rest of the time I was to be there. He said I was going to finish well. I thought, how cute! That isn’t happening now!!! But knowing that God sees the big picture, I went with it. He told me that I needed to pray and seek Him daily on finishing well, and when anything tried getting in the way I was to pray against it in the name of Jesus. I can honestly say I sought Him every day I went to work. Not to toot my own horn, but to show my obedience to His word on my life. It was not easy though. Some days I still hated going to work, but I still prayed faithfully. And since then, I have seen the changes and the promises He made come to life. I had to be reminded though that I would finish well in His eyes, not those that I worked with. It was God’s opinion that mattered the most in how well I finished, not others. So I had to pray and ask God what that looked like. And to protect me from myself. He showed me, and now I feel that His promise has given me the confidence I need to finish well. Not perfect, but well, in His eyes.
I am nearing the end of my full time here, switching to a reserve status so I can go back to school and pursue my music degree in order to be a worship pastor. And now that I’m here, I can see that God’s word for this journey, along with His strength to get through it, was one of the things that has matured me in my faith, in my attitude, and in my dependence on Him. Though my relationships with people I work with are much better than they were, though I am capable of doing my job a lot better, and though my attitude has been more joyful, God is due the praise and glory. He got me through it. And I know that this is just one of many journeys that I will endure. But I trust in God and what His word says in James 1:2-4. (Give it a read) And I hope this encourages those of you that choose to read it. You too will finish well, wherever in life God has you. Seek Him daily and know that when we are at our lowest, He is good and showing us how great He really is. Continue to worship Him even when things get tough. And consider it joy when you endure those trials. They are there for a reason. They are opportunities to trust in God and draw blood upon the enemy. One day you will be complete and mature, lacking nothing!!