Reflection-Musing-Update | Nov 2022
This morning a friend shared her thoughts on unexpected life changes and God’s provision. She included this line: “This is no second-best or placeholder season.”
Story time!
In 2021-2022, I was on a twelve-month contract at a busy, stressful full-time-plus office job. When my contract came up for renewal in April 2022, I opted not to continue on. Instead I decided to finish up, give myself a clean break, and then venture into freelance writing.
Now, I would say I went into freelancing with the ‘placeholder’ attitude – I’ll give myself a money buffer, give it some time, and if it doesn’t work out, well, I’ll go find a real job.
Since then, I have had weeks at a time of not enough work coming in to balance my rent going out. I’ve had regular clients turn sporadic, and sporadic clients turn regular. I’ve seen money turn up unexpectedly at just the right time – again, and again, and again.
And the money buffer? The threshold I marked, the line I told myself (and God) that, if I crossed it, that was it for the freelancing thing? (And I’m not talking pocket change; from memory my initial buffer was something like $4-5k.)
I’ve been within $30 of hitting the line. $30. But I’ve never crossed it.
God knew the line was there, and He said “trust me, kid,” and He provided. Freelance work has turned up just when I needed it. Doors for non-freelance work have gently been shut: a spontaneous same-day interview went nowhere, a personal request from management to apply for a position was blocked by corporate, and so on. Clearly, freelancing is the right place to be for now.
And with some more regular clients, my finances are stabilising and slowly starting to grow. I’m busy, but I’m finding the balance: as much as I love what I do, I have no intention of letting this become just another full-time-plus office job.
All of which leads me to the thought so perfectly articulated by Arielle: This is no placeholder season. It’s not smooth sailing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t part of the plan. This is where I’m meant to be.
God’s got this — and God’s got you. This is no placeholder season.