I Am Blessed To Be Just Unemployed

The month of December marks 7 months that I have been unemployed. For 3 of those months, I have not had any income, and as a former church employee, not eligible for unemployment insurance. As I contemplated all the wonderful blessings from God this Christmas season, I realized how fortunate I am, as a husband and father, to be just employed. For instance;

I could be a husband and father in a Somalian refugee camp trying to keep my wife and children alive. Trying to find enough food and clean water each day just to live until the next day. Nothing else would matter, including the "things" that we left behind in our hasty exodus.


 I could be a father in Juarez, Mexico, terrified every time my teenage sons leave the house, knowing that the drug cartels are killing young men involved in drug trafficking. Sadly, many young men have lost their lives because of mistaken identity.


I could be a father in Southeast Asia, escorting my teenage daughter everywhere she has to go, scared to death that she might be kidnapped and sold into the heinous sex trafficking industry.


I could be a Christian husband and father, looking over my shoulder every time we attend ourchurch in Tehran, Iran. Many of our friends have been arrested and fathers have a way ofdisappearing and never being heard from again.

Instead, I live in the most prosperous country in the world. I do not have to fear when my children leave our house. We have yet to miss a meal. Even though our financial health has suffered a serious blow in the second half of 2011, we have been blessed abundantly by friends and relatives. God has been so good to us. Today, December 26th, we are celebrating Christmas with 20 relatives in Colorado Springs, CO. Most of my children and grandchildren are here, along with parents and brother and sister-in-laws. We've discovered that the "things" of Christmas are not so nearly as important at the "people". While I have always known the presence of God in this wonderful season of the year, this year, Immanuel truly has been God With Us.