Three Lines of Text

My job

Often frustrates me.

I work for the classified department

Of a community newspaper chain.

I am trainer, IT, administrative support, accounts receivable, legals backup, paginator, customer service,
Fixer of broken things and

Builder of things that don't yet exist.

I am whoever and whatever

My team needs

In an endlessly shifting, urgency-driven environment.

In my moments of angst, I feel that

My team is too needy and selfish,

My boss is too overwhelmed to notice I'm drowning,

My knowledge to complete projects and tasks is inadequate,

My foresight and understanding are not where they should be,

And the amount of work is more

Than a human being can complete in a day.

My moments of angst

Are coming more and more frequently.

Lord, are you testing me?

The knowledge that I am not doing

What I'm meant to be doing

Pricks at me,

Yet...

The passageway to a new calling

Eludes me.

Are you training me for the next phase?

Are you trying me

Like gold in a furnace?...

Purifying me through heat,

Burning away my impurities,

Testing me through fire?

Lord, let it be so.

Let me learn greater patience,

Bear larger burdens,

Overcome greater obstacles

Through the trials before me.

Lord...

Three lines of text are the smallest ads I have ever seen.

When I despair,

Remind me

That Your Will can be worked

Through three lines of text

In a community newspaper,

Or on the newspaper websites.

Remind me that three lines of text

Can mean the difference between

A job

An apartment

A house

An urgently needed service.

Remind me of

The house Upstate my parent bought 26 years ago

After seeing an ad in the Bay News.

Remind me of the many jobs

I have found from the classifieds.

Remind me of

...The out-of-work man using the papers to find a job...

...The family that's grown too big for their one bedroom apartment

Using the site to find a new home...

...The elderly woman calling the 24-hour plumber

When the heat in her house dies...

Lord, My God!

Redeem us as people individually,

And as a team collectively.

Redeem the work of our hands, that it may be fruitful

For our clients and ourselves.

Redeem the leaders, that they may exercise

Wisdom and good judgment.

Redeem our hearts, that our intentions and purposes

Are for the good of those we serve.

Use us for good, for good, O God!

Redeem my work, Father,

And the processes of my mind,

And the strength of Your Spirit dwelling within me,

That I may stumble less,

Learn more,

Support better,

And endure more.

Three lines of text

Seem so small, Lord,

But was it not with words

That You created the world?

Using the power of words,

Help us change the world

For Good,

O My God.