The title is from Isaiah 43:19.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to get preachy (but if you would like to hear about Jesus just ask me!)  My wife had some dreams last year where she kept hearing these words, “Behold, I am doing a new thing”,  “Look, I’m doing something new!”   After those dreams, our life started to change.

I’ve been an avid pilot my whole adult life.  But since I’ve been convicted to scale down our lives I decided to sell my airplane and get into a more affordable type of aviation.   I couldn’t sell the plane no matter how much I lowered the price.  Then I crashed.  Not a bad crash mind you, in fact, I crash better than anyone I know.  (With apologies to Mel Gibson in Air America).  Only the landing gear was damaged but it was damaged beyond economical repair so the airplane was totaled by the insurance company.  I got more than I could have sold it for and with the sale of my hangar, I was able to retire all our consumer debt and put a sizable chunk away into savings.

“Behold, I Am doing a new thing”

Over the Fall, my autistic son became more violent.  To the point we had to call police and take him to ER multiple times.  Eventually we had to throw up our hands and turn to the county regional center who were able to find him a home to live in (because we couldn’t handle him any more).  This gave my wife and I the breathing room we needed to think this through.  I’m leaving a lot out for his privacy’s sake but bottom line is my wife was able to find him a new psychiatrist and get him on some medicine that actually works instead of making things worse.  He is now living in a group home about 2 miles from us and seems to be doing much better.  He wanted to move out anyway.  Now he has and we have respite from 23 years of raising an autistic boy and man.

“Behold, I Am doing a new thing”

Last week I get news that I am being laid off in 4 months.   Not just me, not just my group of 6 network admins, but the entire IT division in our corporation.  All of us from managers on down are being let go.  We also “get” to train our replacements in India.  But the silver lining is we also get a severance package so I should have full pay until mid-October some time.   This news would have been so much harder to take if my son were still living here, if I were trying to figure out how I was going to sell the airplane and hangar still.

“Behold, I Am doing a new thing”

Since my wife’s dreams all of the pieces of life have aligned to put us in a stronger position relative to losing my job.  A stronger position relative to pursuing my dream of living a full time traveling lifestyle.  I’m at a crossroads in life.  Do I do Life 2.0 and “do a new thing?”  I’m already applying to jobs that are in the field I’m qualified for.  But there is something nagging at the back of my brain to work with disable children and adults.  Do I do what I’ve always done and wait for that job to lay me off?  Or do I do a job that will really make a difference in someone’s life?

Maybe it’s time to do a new thing.