God Is Who He Is

“Obedience is the key to real faith – the unshakable kind of faith so powerfully illustrated by Job’s life. Job lost his home, his family, his health. But though it appeared God had abandoned him, Job clung to the assurance that God is who He is.”
-Charles Colson

Isn’t it funny how quickly we forget that God is who He is?

• Stuck in traffic. What am I going to do? I’m running late!
• Tough day at work. How am I ever going to get this done? Why do I have to deal with this situation?
• Family issues. Why can’t this child see the right way to do things?
• Financial problems. How are we going to afford this? We’ll never get out of this hole.

Where’s God in all of these questions? We all (myself absolutely included) tend to forget that He is in control…that God is who He is.

So much stress, so much worry. 

As the author goes on to say, real faith is believing and acting obediently regardless of circumstances or contrary evidence.

A reminder to myself today, and anyone else who needs it, to keep that in mind. If we truly believe in God, incorporating that belief into our daily routine and applying it to difficulties that come up will keep us in a place of peace.

Simply remembering that God is who He is can be a real game-changer.

Have a great day.

Top 10 Most Stressful Jobs of 2011

Is your job stressing you out? Well, it could be worse. Take a look at this list.

I think it’s funny that the three types of positions I’ve held since college all fall in the top five. 2, 4, 5…yep, I guess it’s been that kind of a career for me 😉

I’ve seen plenty of stressful days as a PR guy and a TV news guy. Both are go, go, go kind of jobs and carry their fair share of responsibilities. Both involve a lot of deadlines, a lot of pressure, and both are rather high-profile positions with not a lot of room for error when it comes to presenting and managing information.

That being said I think it’s somewhat of a stretch to include them in this list. I mean come on. Handling PR for an agency or elected official and broadcasting the news…yes they’re stressful gigs but I find it a bit hard to believe that these positions are among the ‘most stressful jobs’ in the world.

Positions where people’s lives are at stake I could understand. The list mentions EMTs. I can totally see that. I’d be stressed to the max if I was an EMT. That’s life or death stuff.

Airline pilots came in at number one on the list. Yep, carrying hundreds of people in a flying tube that is hurtling through the sky with everyone’s livelihood riding on your training and abilities…that’s some real stress right there.

Organ transplant surgeons, hostage situation negotiators, personal security detail agents, prison guards – all of those seem like infinitely more stressful positions than the ones I’ve held in my life that made the ‘Top 10′ list. Having others’ lives – or your own – depending on your job performance is how I would define a stressful job. (I’ll make an exception for the journalists and PR folks who are directly in harm’s way. Those positions do exist, I’m aware.)

But I digress. Whatever your job is, I hope it’s relatively stress-free and I suggest that you have a system in place for dealing with that stress when it does arise.

One thing to remember: No matter what the stress level of your job may be, these days it’s a blessing just to have a job. Simply being employed is a good thing, folks. A little stress on the job certainly beats not having one as far as I’m concerned.