6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.
-Philippians 4:6-7a, NLT
Recently, I received some disappointing news. I was passed over for promotion despite currently doing the job keeping the department afloat.
God had prepared me for this news. I had received some prophetic words as recently as July reminding me that the next steps in my career wouldn’t look like I expected. And they would be much bigger!
What do we do with disappointing news?
I will never forget one of the lessons I learned in CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) about expectations and experience. My teacher told us the difference between the two–i.e. our expectation and experience–is the intensity of feeling we get when faced with the reality. So true!
It is human to grieve what we thought would happen. To let go of those plans can be hard. I think this is one of the biggest losses of divorcing Cheaters–i.e. lost dreams.
Thankfully, I had a wonderful chat with the incoming supervisor who seems like a very good and accomplished person. I caught a vision for what might be in the future, and with that, a peace has descended upon my heart about the whole situation–a God-sent peace, I think.
