advice

**Note:  I have several post templates that I need to compose and publish. Appalachia updates will be finished someday soon, so don't think I've forgotten about them.  I might even post a few pictures for y'all!**


I've been hearing from several people lately about their dissatisfaction with how their lives are going, or their helplessness when things don't go as planned, or when promising opportunities have been taken away leaving them back where they started.  I'm in a similar boat.


I'm going to spare you too many details, but I've become increasingly dissatisfied with my life as it is right now.  I feel like I have little opportunity for advancement in my career, that I'm not in a profession that's valued by government or society, and that opportunities for personal enrichment are few in the area in which I live.  I've been fifty-fifty when thinking about whether I can see myself continuing to live where I am for a while or moving elsewhere.  Over the past year, though, and intensifying starting with this spring, I've been thinking about and casually looking into other places to live.


The anxiety of a move, of new friends and coworkers and apartment and city...it's gotten pretty bad.  I don't do well with change, and I don't do well with venturing out on my own.  Hello, problems.  But after reading an email from a friend whose college plans just went down the drain thanks to loan issues, I have come to a realization.  Here's an excerpt of my response to this friend (with a few things changed to fit the new audience, of course).


"Here's the deal, though--there's a purpose for everything.  There's a purpose for everything.  There's a purpose for everything.  There's a purpose for everything.  I'm saying it lots of times because you need to believe it, and because I need to believe it.  I'm feeling like I'm floundering myself, unhappy with where I am and what I'm doing, but I have no clue how to fix it.  And it's hard for me to believe that God has a purpose for me and a plan that includes the mess my life is in right now--but it's true.  He does.  And I hope that I'll find comfort in that soon, as is my hope for you.  For right now, all we can do is pray and take it one little step at a time.  One of my students told me at the beginning of last year that one of her favorite sayings is, 'Faith is taking the first step when you can't see the rest of the staircase.'  How true that is, and how necessary it is to live like that.


"I love you very much and I want the best for you.  I want you to be happy and confident and secure in your life.  I will do the best I can to make things happen for you, but believe me when I say that prayer is the most appropriate tool we can use in times like these.  Take heart, my sweet friend, and take solace in the promises God makes to order our steps and light our paths.  Because while everything else may seem unstable and confusing, He is a kind and constant guide, holding our hands the whole way, tugging His scared little children through forests we've never seen...but that He created.  Shouldn't we trust the One who put breath in our lungs, earth under our feet, and His own Spirit in our hearts?


"Trust in the Father to show you the one step you must make, and then MAKE it.  And make it with excitement and anticipation of the wonderful events he has already set up to take place in your life."


I can only pray that I take my own advice as well.