Too Much of a Good Thing
Episode IV - A New Hole: Part II
NOTE: This is Part II of a current unfolding multi-post series from the ongoing saga that's all about God telling us in Luke 7 how He showed up big time in a little town called Nain. I say all that, because if you haven't read Part I: "He Said You Needed This", yet, you should. It's good.
Read Part I….
Scripture: Name Above All Means To All Ends
Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”
Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.
Luke 7:11-17
Part II: Too Much of a Good Thing
Last time, we talked briefly about how God has this funny way of helping people know that He’s definitely going to bring them through their thing, by telling us how He previously brought someone else, through a somewhat different thing.
The thing He wants you to know is you can count on Him, because He showed up for them.
That means the old saying IS true: history, does in fact, repeat itself. Maybe your situation isn’t the same as something that happened to someone else several thousand years ago, but the same thing that will happen is what He said, He did:
He will step in. He will show up. He will do something no one else could ever do.
So, while maybe you think your story or circumstances are different, His everlasting Narrative of intervening before its too late, never changes. HIStory always repeats itself.
It’s like it’s His favorite thing to do.
So, with all THAT in mind, it’s time for a little backstory of our own. Here’s my family’s current thing: my wife lost her job about 10 days ago. Which, is ironic.
For reasons we might get into later, we have been a single income home for nearly the last year, following what felt like obedience to what God told us to do.
Actually, for the last couple years, we’ve been following God’s commands to a new land, to be a blessing to others, to stop what we’re doing and run after Him. We did all of it, because it was Him Who said it – but let’s be honest, secretly expecting that all this preposterous obedience would lead us into the prosperous future He Promises: blessings upon blessings. Blessings squared!
Instead, we’re back to square one, and it feels like we’ve been rooted up and led to the edge of a cliff with a lot of what we hold dear piling up behind us – many of them, ironically, there because we obeyed God in the first place – all of them, threatening to bump us over into the abyss.
The cause of her departure is ironic, as well. She didn’t do anything wrong. Call me biased if you want to, but I’ve had a front row seat to the whole shebang, which I will now casually sum up for you in a quick 3 minutes...ish:
A little while ago, her inpatient hospital was absorbed into a new national realignment of regions. The original management that hired her were based in America’s heartland – and didn’t just understand how important regional influencers can be to regions where cows often outnumber people, they were also mostly hands off in letting her run it.
But when new leadership from the East Coast showed up and got down to business without even shaking hands and started talking about a new hands-on approach to fixing things that weren’t broken, it was clear that they were going to do everything they could to clear house because they ironically wanted local business done their way.
Here’s the thing about Kentucky folk, and more specifically South-Central Kentucky locals – it’s a different breed of people down here. Some of the best people I’ve ever met, with some really deep-seeded underlying mistrust for anyone they meet, that: doesn’t have a surname that dates back to the Civil War (which, nearly everyone around here abstained from); doesn’t agree with putting Mountain Dew in baby bottles – let alone anyone left-leaning telling them the right way to raise their kids; or, approaches business with a view on profit more than people. Everyone down here has this way more careful way of doing things than most anywhere I’ve ever experienced – and yet, ironically, it’s a land where handshake agreements trump contracts, the tractor brand you prefer can actually open or close doors, and familial relations make or break business relationships.
My wife is from down here, and for a while, she effectively served as the classy-muck-booted bridge between those east coast cubicle pioneers using spreadsheets and SQL databases to determine appropriate next steps from 1000 miles away and the indigenous hearts and minds of fifth generation Kentuckiana physicians and patients who have literally chosen her and the hospital she represents, because of who her kin is.
And in spite of years and years of success, ironically the actual data telling the story that my wife single-handedly took an entity from the company’s cellar to the top of the region in 18 months and kept it there for several years in a row – let alone, glowing annual progress reports ironically written by the new uppercrust about all the bread she was making for them – after making her last 16 months just awful, the new regional leaders finally forced her out.
The final misfortunes that changed everything for her ironically, started right around the Ides of March. Her brand new CEO, someone ironically handpicked by the regional leadership to fix everything, walked into the most important referral partner in the area, did a little backstabbing of her biggest customers’ mid-level case management team (with them in the room), and in a real coup used PowerPoint to assassinate their C-Suite’s credibility, showing everyone how she thought they were wasting millions of dollars doing it their way.
Then, came back to my wife saying, “I think I might of made them mad.”
Then, threw up deuces and went on a 10-day vacation to the West Coast.
Can’t make this stuff up.
And the data would prove her right. Referrals from their neighboring institution dried up nearly entirely. And my wife was left to clean up the situation and report to the regionals on the deficiencies caused, every day for those 10 days.
The tidal wave of no-performance, ironically, resulting in wifey sitting through hours of mandatory in-office meetings in front of a desktop camera while the geniuses on the other side of the world would ask, ‘what are you gonna do about it?’ and ‘why aren’t you doing something about it?’ – all the while, keeping her indoors, instead of in front of customers, doing something about it. On top of demands for reports that would take additional hours to make, but would obviously go unread when follow up questions she would have to respond to immediately would ask for data that was in the report she just submitted hours ago. And, the leadership vacuum left by the CE-NOWHERETOBEFOUND would result in incorrectly assigned blame and her subordinates needing to furlough staff.
And listen, ironically, as a former business owner and other people’s president/CEO, I’ve hired nearly a hundred people – and, fired a lot too. I totally get how all this sounds and if it weren’t my best friend and a few of the finality-precipitating conversations recorded for posterity, I wouldn’t believe it either.
My wife came back to work last Monday and was told they had “grievous concerns” about her being in this position much longer. And the future we had been not just expecting, but ironically declaring, decreeing, and agreeing with God for – was suddenly gone.
Now it quickly it becomes a question of do we stick it out and see if justice finally gets served and God drops something heavy on their heads for touching His anointed or do we stick a fork in it and get out now while there’s still two weeks’ pay, a pay out of 6 weeks of, ironically, unused PTO, and a Cobra available?
She actually gave her resignation and was walked out by HR on my birthday. A day that is supposed to be an annual triumphant celebration of my glorious nativity is actually now going to be forever and ironically marred as the day her hard-won, long fought, and much beloved career, died.
And the final nail they’re driving in her coffin?
She went away for the weekend. For our son’s baptism.
Swish around in your mouth all the intrinsic meaning behind those two things I just said. How does it taste?
Ironic?
Deliciously, yes.
Episode IV - A New Hole: Too Much of a Good Thing. Behold(en), still. Copyright © 2026 Behold(en), still.
Binge reading is neat…
You know what would be REALLY ironic? Stopping here! Punch your to-do list in the face and tell your spouse you'll be late for dinner, 'cause you're gonna read more about God telling you how you now know He's about to step into whatever ugly thing you got, by the miracles He did for someone else a long time ago, in a land far, far away in Episode IV - A New Hole: Part III, "It's Like Rain in the Dessert"
Read Part III…
One more thing
Woah. Your favorite blogger/podcaster/shark wrangler just got REALLY vulnerable with the world; THANK GOD I'm still anonymous! But, you should know God doesn't just know your name, He knows everything about you - and still wants more! Please take just a few moments to read what He did for you and get ready for everything to change, for the better.