The Agony of Losing One's Job

Almost everyday a news item would carry stories of companies laying off their workers. It has become a daily announcement that it could probably trigger any of these two reactions:

1. Feel overwhelmed at the scope and enormity of these job losses.

2. An apathetic attitude because the person hearing the news does not want to feel emotionally uncomfortable.

But these news items on job losses are still coming in. And these jobs cuts are not in the dozens, but in thousands.

THOUSANDS.

Each job representing a family that has daily needs, bills to be paid and hungry mouths to be fed.

And these job cuts are not just limited in one geographic location. The whole world is reeling over this dilemma on how these multinationals could recover from all these upheavals.

Please say a quiet and heartfelt prayer for these millions of people affected by these job cuts. Even our OFWs are coming home in hordes - after losing their much awaited jobs overseas. For millions of our countrymen, their overseas jobs are not merely means by which their needs could be met, but these are vehicles by which their dreams and their aspirations for their children could be achieved.

Millions of our countrymen leave the country to be able to afford the college tuition and pay off their debts. And with these job losses threatening more than a million of our countrymen, it behooves us to all come together and ask ourselves what can be done to alleviate this situation.

We need to brace ourselves by having the “war-time mentality”. In times of war, the things that are important and essential to us are magnified clearly. We eat, sleep and breathe and do things to meet our basic needs, and not our wants and greed.

Look into our lives and see what are the things we need to let go of. What are the dreams that may need to be delayed a bit? What are the things that we can still use instead of pining away for things that may not really be necessary right now, but in our mind, may seem to be the most urgent need.

We pray for the millions of people right now who have lost their jobs. We pray for those whose jobs are being threatened right now by the ailing economy. These are stressful times. The lost of a job is even just a few points below the stress scale of someone who lost a loved one. Losing a job is also a form of death. With the lost of a job, there are things that are real and imagined, that go with such loss.

And anytime we lose something, the degree of its perceived and inherent value, determines to a certain extent the depth, length and width of the griefwork that we need to do.

We pray for all of them Lord. We pray for the provision that so many families would need. Take care of their children. Please show mercy upon all of them by opening wide the gates of opportunities for them. Let them feel the encouragement that could only come from you. Let us all realize how much all of our needs are taken care of because You are our Father in heaven. Thank you for crying with them and for them. Give them the strength to daily live a life of faith and surrender their fears and whatever host of emotions they will go through.

There are millions of people affected when thousands lose their jobs.

Lord you are more than enough for all of us.

Do not let anyone go hungry or become unconsolable.

We place everyone in your loving hands.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen