The title pretty much describes the past two weeks, andthat’s okay.

While it does fall under the category of “Real Life,” I usually do not write about my “regular” job for a couple of reasons:

1. I’m not interested in being “dooced,”
2. Most of my work product would fall under confidentiality agreements concerning the disclosure of proprietary information, so I can’t talk about them in my blog anyway.

Plus, I don’t think a typical reader would be interested in what kinds of VBA genius I figured out for Excel during a given week, anyway.

However, much of the past two weeks has focused on work, as I’m nowout of a job after it was offshored to eastern Europe, although I do continue to get paid through late September as part of the deal so I can look for another position in the company.  There are already a couple of good leads that I should hear about sometime next week, so hopefully my unemployment will not last long.

Today I finished packing up the equipment that I need to ship back to the company—everything but the SecurID tag so I can access the network up until UPS picks it all up on Friday. Of course it would all be shipped back to me if I find another position in the company, but rules are rules.  There is a whole lot of paper to read about the severance process, transitions, etc., to fill my empty days for a while.

The ‘at risk of involuntary termination’ status was expected, and to be honest there is a sense of relief and calmness about the whole thing as the result is now clear as well as what needs to be done in response to it, and I’m no longer living in limbo over whether or not I’ll have a job the following week.  The severance package also helps in the event I can’t find another position and have to start looking somewhere else.

The two things that have kept coming to my mind since gettingthe letter last week are the two things I always keep telling “my guys” in the recovery group.  Of course, they’re based on scriptures.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105(ESV)

“A lamp to my feet”—we never see the entire road ahead, and we don’t need to. We are shown where we need to put our foot down next, where our next step is to be.  The rest is simply trust that the One who guides us knows the destination.  I mentioned this when I wrote about the original announcement of my work being offshored.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13(ESV)

This verse is very important to me. It tells me a lot of things. 

First, I’m never alone in what I deal with; there’s nothing on this earth that I could go through that someone else hasn’t gone through already, so there is always the opportunity to learn from another’s experience and for someone else to learn from my experience. 

The second thing it tells me is that God’s fully aware of our human limitations and knows how much we can deal with before we reach the breaking point. The issue is that most of the time, whatGod knows we can handle is more than than whatwe think we can handle.  And that causes all sorts of faith issues.

So the lamp, if you will, is now moving, and I better be going with it lest I get left in the dark, huh?

Instant message overload.

Originally uploaded byswbuehler.

Left to right: AdiumX (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, GTalk, Jabber, LiveJournal, .Mac); Tweetr 1.01 (Twitter); Pownce Alpha 2; Skype™—oh, and my iTunes in the bottom there. And this is just the right-screen on my desktop.

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