This morning, I glanced at my phone to see today’s date: March 4th. MARCH 4th? What year is it? 2024? Oh, my goodness! 30 years ago today, I “marched forth” to the divorce attorney after making a certain, but not 100 percent certain, serious life choice. I didn’t know what my future as a young divorcée would look like, but I knew it would be better. I chose hopeful uncertainty.
In retrospect, I couldn’t have IMAGINED what my future life would look like for me, when I was only 23. I remember thinking my biggest problem would be that “no guy would want me” because I was divorced. That was a fictitious philosophy paling in comparison to the unexpected upshots to come.
I found out, less than a month after the divorce was final, I was going to be laid off by the company my father and I both worked at; and my parents (whom I returned to live with) would be moving with said company from New Jersey to North Carolina. I, too, decided to move down South for a fresh start, but I couldn’t secure a job for almost six months! I wanted so badly to resume working for the same company that released me (I guess I wanted desperately to cling to something familiar from my past). I couldn’t. Though I had secured a very challenging, experience-rich, yet low-paying position as a software trainer at a computer learning center, I still kept my eyes and ears open for jobs with my former employer.
One day, a position opened up in the Controllers department, working in the Revenue area. I had never taken a finance or accounting class in my LIFE. I was a word girl, not a numbers diva. As it turned out, the job I was least qualified for was the one I received. How odd! I took it and had a blast working with amazing people in the office and via email around the world…including Paulo Nogueira, my hubby, from Santos, Brazil!
After leaving that company, daily phone calls with Paulo, $600 phone bills, moving back to NJ for my dream job, another trip to Brazil, Paulo’s unfruitful tourist visa interview, and an engagement over the phone, I learned “one guy did want me”! Paulo and I will be happily married twenty-five years this May!
What do you need to MARCH FORTH with today? Is it to ask that someone special on a date? Is it to go to Europe alone because nobody you know shares that dream? Is it to leave the comfortable job for the one you’ve always dreamed of? Is it to sign up for a realtor class? Is it to adopt? Is it to join a weight loss program? Is it to try liver? Is it to ask someone for help? Whatever it is, if you know in your heart your life would be better if you marched forth and took that action, even though you don’t know what the future looks like, DO IT ANYWAY and DO IT NOW! Life is too short. The number of our days is only known to the Lord. Stop living wondering.
I didn’t know all of the hurdles I’d have to jump through on my way to happiness, but hurdles are still better than living life feeling unfulfilled. So, don’t delay. Ask God for the strength and courage. Don’t fear the future. March forth into a wonderful, uncertain life!
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“That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ “They shall feed along the roads, And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.” Isaiah 49:9 New King James Version (NKJV)
Pamela's Pulpit 