I was remiss in reaching out to my friend after he lost his job. In fact, he was out of work for nearly two years, and I failed to connect with him.
He had worked faithfully and effectively in the same job for 18 years, but a corporate downsizing decision was made in a city far removed from where he lived and worked and–if one day he was gainfully employed doing a job he loved and did well–the next day he wasn’t.
Even though I’ve had his name and phone number on my “to do” list for months, I had yet to contact him. Except recently I accidentally “ran into him” and apologized profusely for being so neglectful. He assured me he was not offended, reporting that he now has a new and different job, one he finds both challenging and rewarding.
As we talked, briefly, while setting a date to have lunch together, he shared something with me he said he had discovered during his painfully frightening time of being unemployed.
“I learned how faith and denial are often the same,” he said.
At which I found myself thinking, as I walked away, “I wonder what he means by that?”
So the first thing I asked him, when we had lunch together recently, was to explain his “faith as denial” statement. And considering the awareness, sensitivity and insight with which my friend is blessed, not to mention how he has cultivated such gifts across his lifetime, through both formal training and related experience, I believe we would all do well to ponder his explanation
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