It’s an anniversary of sorts.  It’s been a year since I lost the job I loved.

That last Friday in May of 2019 will be forever etched in my mind.  The sudden realization that it wasn’t just a routine meeting.  The head of HR was there.  And it wasn’t to tell me that I might not be coming back after my summer break, which there had been rumors of.  It was to tell me that I was done. Effective immediately. “Budget cuts”.

That started a chain of events that even now I look back on and it all makes my head spin.  The decision to move after 31 years in the same place.  The packing, sorting, selling, goodbyes. The 1250 mile journey back “home” to New Jersey with all my belongings and all of my memories. The job searches, applications, interviews.  A very different conversation with another HR person in October offering me a position in college health at a nearby university.  Which I accepted.  Which was going along smoothly until a certain coronavirus decided to shake everything up. I’m still very gratefully employed, but it sure looks a lot different.

“I will remember the works of the Lord.” Psalm 77:11

So often throughout scripture, God reminded His people to remember.  To look in their rearview mirrors and see where He had brought them from and everything that He had done in their lives. How He protected and provided, even on the dark days.   Today, as I think about all that has changed in the past 12 months, I choose to look back.  I choose to remember.

In the greatest upheaval of my life, God was there.  I came to know Him in new ways, ways I wouldn’t have experienced had it not been for being uprooted from my comfort and routine.  It still amazes me how God does some of His greatest work in our lives through difficulties and challenges.  As in the story of Joseph, “God meant it for good”. (Genesis 50:26).

A year ago today I was reeling.  I didn’t know what would happen next.  I had no idea that twelve months later I’d be living in a new state.  That I’d be working at a much larger university, still doing the kind of nursing I love.  I had no idea I’d be back with family after so many years being so far away.  But God knew.  As I look back now and remember, I see that He had been at work in my life long before that day in May, preparing me for His plan.

I want to savor this.  I want this to teach me to be quick to trust Him when the next upheaval comes my way, because it most certainly will.  It’s just the way it is here on this fallen earth. But God can use every upheaval for good. And for that, I am grateful.

Look back often. Not to second guess, or lament.  But to remember.

Remember His marvelous works which He has done. Psalm 105:5

He has made His wonderful works to be remembered.  The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.  Psalm 111:4

He is your praise, and He is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.  Deuteronomy 10:21