Standing Alone… by the garbage can

If you have read my blog for even a short time you know that the Lord speaks to me a lot through analogies. Last night at about midnight it was when I took the garbage out...

I collected all the garbage in the house, stuffed it into the garbage can and dragged the can to the curb. I looked around as I always do to see all the other garbage cans on the curb, only this time, my can was the only can on the curb. I stopped... hummm. I do have some memory problems. Is this Sunday night? I think so, yes, I am pretty sure, yes, it is Sunday night. So where are all the other garbage cans? It's a holiday... Columbus Day. No garbage tomorrow... Yeah, but I did that once before for a smaller holiday and I put my can back and they still came. Hummm... what to do, what to do... I am the only one with a garbage can out though ... well, it doesn't hurt to have it sit out an extra day, and I think they will still come...

8:47 am Monday morning... the garbage men came.

Standing alone is hard. This was a really silly example of standing alone, but it reminded me of a time when standing alone was a lot harder. I was working at a former job. The new director didn't like me because I was a Christian. (Her in-laws were hell-fire and brimstone type Christians and she thought we were all the same.) It came to her attention that I would not discuss abortion as an option with my clients that were pregnant and did not want to be pregnant. The previous director was aware of this before she even hired me as I told her how I felt about this and made it a condition of my hire and she was fine with this. The current director was not. The current director said that was not acceptable. I told the director that I respected whatever decision she had to make but that I would not be changing my stance on this. A month later I was told I was being let go due to budget cuts. I told the director that I thought she made the right decision and that I respected her decision. I had to work there about three more months until the end of the fiscal year. I did not make a fuss and was very nice to the director.

Upon leaving the director wrote in my letter of reference,” My admiration of Tori* as a co-worker equals my respect for her commitment to her faith. Tori lives by the teachings that she studies and is not willing to compromise her values or beliefs for any reason." The director told me in my exit interview that she had never seen a Christian act differently than her in-laws and because she had seen something different she thinks that maybe someday she would even consider going back to church. It was then that I knew it was all worth it.

It is hard to stand alone. Those were really hard days for me. I was unemployed for the full 6 months. At the end of the 6 months it became even harder when I moved away from all my friends and family to a land far, far away... 5 hours away (some of you should be laughing and making fun of me at this point)... to the other side of the state... might as well have been the moon, because I was so homesick... but the Lord in His great mercy taught me so much "on the moon" and it was good. Then He let me come home.

I don't share all of this to toot my own horn but to remind myself and anyone who might read this to not make those daily compromises. Don't get caught up in the latest gossip. Don't talk only to the more popular person, talk to the person who seems a little awkward. I still need a Savior and I still need to remind myself to not compromise... take a stand... even if you are standing alone.

I need to go get my empty garbage can...

*Name changed