All is well. And can I tell you about the Monday and Tuesday I had? Honestly, Monday was spectacular! God blessed me with the best Monday I have had in a long time. We tend to complain about Mondays, and I did myself a few weeks ago, posting a picture of a work project in LACK of progress. But this Monday was a good one!
First, I had a relationship problem that I was stressing over that got resolved.
Next, I had a work problem that had been living rent-free in my brain for that past week and a half. We were close to reaching a milestone on my project, a milestone that would get us paid JUST enough to cover our costs on the next batch of materials. Except... my customer went on vacation without telling me. We had to put it all on credit cards. Enough to buy a new car. And then I myself had to go on vacation. I worked hard the Sunday we left on vacation, going to the jobsite both before and AFTER church, just to get to that milestone. The customer agreed to give the money to my employee while I was gone-- except he didn't. And I totally panicked. Because we didn't just need the progress payment, we needed they payment for the change orders he had verbally agreed to, but never signed. The work was done, or nearly so, and we have been burned by other customers in the past who asked for extra work, but refused to pay us when it was done because it wasn't in the contract.
So the whole week of vacation, I was stressing. And I went straight from vacation to chemotherapy without stopping by the jobsite, or even the house. No time! So on Saturday night, the customer agreed to pay us, and on Sunday he gave me a $43k check. Not just for the milestone payment, not just for the change order payment, but also for the NEXT milestone payment, which we are close on but not actually finished with. WOW, God!
But we had another problem. We calculated that we should have less than $200 in our bank account. How does one deposit a $43k out-of-state check with $200 in the account? I mean, without getting a 7-10 day hold? Not possible! This is Truist Bank we're talking about here. Inconceivable. But when we checked our account one more time, we had $5,000 in it. What? That's weird, but okay. So I went to the bank, asked for no hold, and THEY DEPOSITED IT WITH NO HOLD.
We figured out soon after why there was money in the account! We accidently paid bills online using an old account that the bank had insisted we close because a check we wrote was stolen out of our customer's mailbox, so the money never actually left our account. This justified our bank depositing the check with no hold, and today we wired funds to cover the wrong account issue, and THEY didn't even charge us a fee!
Then on the way to the jobsite, I had a wonderful initial phone call out of the blue from a potential publisher who is interested in the book I am working on. I may not go with them, but it was a gratifying conversation.
And finally, I saw on Facebook that an old friend of mine who had lost her husband to cancer a couple of years ago had re-married and just celebrated her one-year anniversary. Her late husband was my mentor when I was a young man, and God often used him to speak to me.
Once, I had come back to visit my old church in Texas, and he pulled me aside and asked me, "Tell me about Debbie." I didn't know any Debbie's at the time. But I met my future wife about month later in Virginia, and she had just recently decided that she would now be called Deborah, rather than Debbie. So here, I was, absolutely clueless to her existence, yet God told me her name through this man! He just gave me a knowing smile, and kept the secret to himself.
I am reminded of the Bible passage in Isaiah 45, where God addresses king Cyrus the Great by name. Cyrus founded the Achaemenid Empire, and was born in 600 BC, but Isaiah ministered from around 740 to 700 BC. So, this is God's word, spoken at least a hundred years before Cyrus is even born:
"This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of
to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut.
I will go before you and level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places,
so that you will know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you have not acknowledged me..."
So God does that! He names people! And he did it for me, through this woman's husband. And then he was gone after a long and miserable bout with cancer, and I grieved for her. But now I see that God DIDN'T leave her lonely. God PROVIDED a husband for her. And I am so very grateful. Thank you God, for taking such good care of my friend Denise, for making this provision for her. This made my day!
Monday, was memorable. So many blessings.
Then came today. Tuesday. I told my customer on Sunday that I expected to be able to work a full day on Monday, but probably only had the physical capacity to work a half day Tuesday. And today, precisely at noon-- at the half day mark-- I crashed. I was eating fast food with my son, and suddenly lost all energy and burst into tears. The whole process, from Good to TOAST, took about 15 seconds. He had to drive me after that. You know, I had all this work to get done today. To get done this week. I wanted to finish the project this week, get paid, and get out of there. But it's not going to happen. Honestly, even if I was feeling GOOD all week, it isn't going to happen. And next week we are gone, and the following week I start chemo again, so if I don't personally get it done this week, then it's not going to get done by me.
But I had to go home. I was just done. We are not going to finish this week. But the customer is happy, and that will have to be enough.
I am bloated and uncomfortable, wearing sweats because none of my clothes fit. (Last chemo, I gained 12.5 lbs from fluid retention.) I look three months pregnant. (My teenage daughter says I look FOUR months pregnant. RUDE!) My wife is sick with a respiratory infection, and I think I have it now too. but the work will eventually get done, the customer is happy, and that is enough.
I think God is trying to teach me to hold things lightly-- especially things like schedule. And my grasping planner hands don't want to let go! But I can only do what I can do.
And really, that's enough. Tomorrow is a new day.
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