A Peace that Passes Understanding

Ready for a shocker?  Matt got fired from his job yesterday.  Yup.  When he started this position almost four months ago it was in his contract that after a 3-month "probationary" period he would have a review which would lead to a substantial raise and quarterly bonuses.  Turns out the company only hired him to do a 3-month job and as soon as he finished it they let him go.  Matt has been asking his boss for a couple weeks now to have that review so he could get his raise.  His boss avoided the review long enough for Matt to finish the project.  Now you may remember me mentioning the hopeful raise in my blog about buying a new house.  Recall that we had determined the affordability of the new house based on Matt's current salary, though his projected raise and bonuses would make us much more comfortable in the house.  Well, we close on our current house tomorrow and on our new house early next week....and we now have no way to pay for it!!!  Crazy huh?

Ok, here's another crazy thing.  I asked Matt this afternoon how we was coping and his response was something along the lines of "I have much more peace about this than I expected."  I responded by reminding him of the "Peace that Passes Understanding."  We looked up the reference (Philippians 4:7) and realized that its the SAME passage that our Pastor, Keith, preached about in church on Sunday!  Keith's message was about dealing with, rather than avoiding, confrontation and contention.  Matt sat there the entire time feeling God preparing him for an approaching dose of confrontation and contention.  Keith concluded with an "apology" to the congregation that we would all be faced with extra confrontation and contention this week because of his sermon and followed up with Philippians 4:7  "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  What a blessing to have God backing us up and taking care of us through thin and through thick.  I'm convinced that this somehow ties in to the new house ordeal and it will be interesting to look back on these recent months and see His powerful hand at work.

On a different note, it's kinda fun having Daddy around during the day.  We had to leave the house this afternoon while our buyers did a final walk-through on our house so we went to the park.  I got to sit on the bench and veg while Matt played with Savannah.  He even taught her a few new tricks!!!

Savannah learning to hang like a Monkey