Today I learned of three different individuals who recently lost their jobs. None of them did anything wrong; they were quite good at their jobs. This week’s blog was written for them and is an excerpt from my book, How Long, O Lord, How Long? Devotions for the Unemployed and Those Who Love Them.  Please share.

I DON’T DESERVE THIS! I imagine you said something like this shortly after learning you’d be out of work. If you didn’t say it, certainly a good friend or coworker probably said it to you. Maybe neither you nor I deserved to lose our job. Unfortunately, though, we live in a world where bad things happen to good people. You and I weren’t the first and we won’t be the last. I hear stories all the time of people who lost their jobs and probably didn’t deserve it.

If you pick up your Bible and do a little reading, you’ll find that your situation isn’t even as bad as what some others went through, much of which they didn’t deserve. Here are just a few:

Jesus was crucified for no reason, no crime. [Pilate] said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him (Luke 23:14). John the Baptist was beheaded (Matthew 14:1-12), Job lost his family (Job 1, 2:1-10). Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery (Genesis 37-45). Jacob worked seven years to marry Rachel, then was tricked into marrying her sister and had to work another seven to marry Rachel (Genesis 29:1-30). Esau’s brother Jacob stole his blessing from their father (Genesis 27:1-40).

In Job 1:21 we are reminded that nothing is ours on our own; it’s all God’s. [Job] said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” The job I had wasn’t “mine”; it was a gift from God. Yours was also a gift. It’s unfortunate those gifts were taken away, but here’s something important to keep in mind: Whether something is deserved or not does not change that it happened. You are still unemployed. The question is how you will deal with it from this point on.

You have some choices to make. You can let this get you down; you can quit. Or you can move past what happened, make the best of it, and move forward to see what great things God has in store for you.

I encourage you to move forward, taking to heart these words from the Apostle Paul written while in prison: Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).