I often wonder about strange things…I love pondering, hence the name of this blog.

My most recent pondering has been about Winter. As this is only my second “true” Winter (since I lived in California for 25 years), I am still adjusting to months of frigid temperatures, white powder covering the ground, and salt on the roads. Winter is bleak, yet beautiful. More than anything, Winter has taught me to fully appreciate Spring, Summer, and Fall. Someone recently described Winter as a time when God allows His creation to rest…a time for the ground to cease growth, and even a time for humans to spend time inside resting, enjoying the warmth and the time not spent tending gardens, mowing lawns, etc. Winter makes us more passionate about the other three seasons, and gives us greater joy at their arrival. I still marvel at all four seasons, recognizing that God didn’t have to create four–He could have kept things constant and thereby boring, and we would have never known the difference. This is yet another way God shows us that we are loved. 🙂

I often think about random things, and most recently it’s been taste buds. What a wonderful creation they are! Without them, we wouldn’t experience the pleasure of different spices and flavors, and eating would be tedious and a chore. Yet, God gave us these little dots to bring us pleasure and happiness while doing a necessary thing like eating. Taste buds are little things, but they bring great joy–or great disgust if you don’t enjoy what you’re eating.

How are these things related? I have come to believe that I may be going through a different kind of Winter right now–being unemployed. I left (well, was forced to leave) a job at which I was thoroughly unhappy, and a job where I was not able to use the talents, gifts, and passions that the Lord has given to me…and I am beginning to wonder if this extended period of joblessness is occurring so that I might more fully appreciate the “Spring” that is to come.

God made us all differently, with different talents, skills, desires, passions. Like tastebuds, certain things might leave a “bad taste” in our mouths, while others thoroughly enjoy them. I’m trying to figure out what it is that will leave me hungering for more, the “job” of which I just can’t get enough.

God has wired me so that I have to be passionate about what I do (for those who have studied StrengthsFinder, my top one is Belief). When I am doing something about which I am passionate (photography, singing, serving other people and gaining nothing in return, etc.), the joy that fills my soul and my life is incredible.  I can work for hours and not even notice. However, when I am doing something that goes against everything that I am (i.e. working in politics, strangely enough), I am unfulfilled, drained, longing for 5 o’clock to come.

I’m holding out for something more, to find the purpose for which God created me, and the purpose for which He brought me to Pennsylvania. I know in my heart that He has a specific purpose for me here, and I cannot wait to figure out what it is!

Lord, show me the path…lead me to the place where my thirst cannot be quenched, where I am meant to be…