Life changes...

Life changes....all the time...it just never stands still. I've been dealing with that a lot lately - in some positive ways with Cat's Cradle (still need a better name for it) and in some challenging ways. As many of you know I started a new career path sharing my knowledge of the hospitality industry with students at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. It started out with a bang and confirmed what I had suspected - I LOVE to teach. Love it. I never knew how much.

What I don't love is the nature of teaching a class that does not have a huge base for enrollment. The classes have been up and down, and the last few have been canceled at the last minute due to low numbers. That's the business end of things I guess. The plus-side is that I have had a wonderful summer hanging out with my daughter and working around the house, but the downside is that following the recent cancellation of my fall class, I have come to the realization that it's time to go back to work. I'm not throwing in the towel on teaching yet - just not making it the sole source of income anymore...

So, does that mean I go back to the hotel industry and move to Texas, or Hawaii, or California? No - at least, not yet. That's where the jobs are, but I don't think that's what God has in store for me. I believe we moved home to Kalamazoo for a reason. We were convinced of that in 2006 and I'm still convinced of it now. Life has changed...it always does. I think this time, while it is a challenge to be patient, it is changing to show me a different route. Teaching revealed to me a gift - one that I didn't know I had and would never have discovered otherwise. Now the "life change" is to find the venue God wants me to use the gift in.

I have a couple thoughts on that, and a couple of irons-in-the-fire that will hopefully bear some fruit. In the meantime, I'm pressing on with the Cat's Cradle Project and praying for God to guide my next step so that I follow His path, not one of my own design. I have more worries than I had a couple weeks ago, but if I succumb to those then the Enemy wins. I have faith in the Father who time and time again has proven to me that Phil. 4:13 is true, not just for me but for all who believe in Him.

I am so amazingly blessed to have a wife who is patient and loving and supportive of this with me. I know that this has been a struggle for her also - being a bread winner is not new to her, but being the only bread winner is hard, especially when she has the gift of balancing our budget each month (the concept of money still escapes me - not when I'm making it for someone else, but when its my own). She and my daughter have been terrific in understanding - we have all had to tighten our belts, more than we have since college probably - and no one complains. I am so blessed.

Life changes...I think I would grow bored if it did not. But I am ready for the next phase. I am grateful for this rest I have had this summer - for those who have ever worked in the hospitality industry you will sympathize that there is no rest there...rest is for the guests. But I am truly ready to "get back to work" and learn what this next chapter of life holds in store.

Peace,
Scott