bleak. 

this is a word i seldom use, but it came up earlier. father god actually used it, confirming he was right here with me.

today is friday. i had nothing in me willing to go to work. even from my 40k foot view of the world, i didn’t have much firepower. i called for backup. then i prayed what i had in me.

“your kingdom come, your will be on on earth at _____, its parent company, all affiliates and in the lives of every man, woman and child touched by this company in any way, shape or form. 

i spoke isaiah 54:17, psalm 91, and a few other off the cuff words of protection, and i put on jesus as my full armor. 

off i went, cranking on some worship and singing at the top of my voice for my short drive.

this is no easy assignment and i find myself defaulting to my flesh more often than i like. i start to sound ungrateful to my own ears by the end of the week, which is easy to do when everything is going wrong most of the time. 

this is a dark place with hard ground, not unusual, but what makes it somewhat unique is what it touches. 

what do i mean? 

we are in the water business. water is an elemental, a god-created thing that is very alive. we touch water. we touch water all over the country. sometimes we work for some very bad companies and people. 

bringing the kingdom into this place is contentious to say the least. water is a big deal in the kingdom, and clean water, more so. you can unpack that more on your own.

if there wasn’t enough havoc this week, some of the crew accidentally buried a forklift 4″ deep into the crappy asphalt of the parking lot while trying to move a trailer to make room for another arriving on monday. 

this was not a partial shit show, but a very complete one with some frustrated guys who’d been trying to get this thing loosed for 2 hours when we (the remaining office staff) went looking for them. 

it was hot outside. the asphalt was soft. the captured forklift was overheating as efforts continued to back it out of its confines.  the pickup didn’t have enough horsepower, and the other two forklifts weren’t big enough to lift the victim high enough to wedge the tires better.

on top of that, the wasps nested in the driver’s side mirror of the pickup also became highly agitated. so, overall, rescue attempts went badly. the forklift is still sunk in the asphalt. 

no one was hurt, and we all agreed human resources would know nothing of this incident. ever. it was a worker’s comp nightmare waiting to happen. no one was hurt, praise god. 

on my short drive home, i was feeling just weary, like nothing was right. gratitude can feel out of reach. and it did. 

i said to father, almost tearfully, “i don’t mean to be ungrateful. i don’t. i’m sorry.”

ever the good father, he just comforted me. 

“what looks bleak now will not remain that way.” 

bleak now has a little silver lining around it, some hope.

great is your faithfulness.

i won’t forget your faithfulness.

i won’t forget your promises. 

this is my confidence.

great is your faithfulness.

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