How I’m benefiting from a “ministry vacation.”

In a couple of weeks it’ll be eleven months since I left “vocational ministry.” The first few months after I left the church that I was working at were spent interviewing at several churches, some in Denver and others around the country. I was also working for an electrician part time. At times I struggled to see how God was providing because church after church continually took me to the final two candidate stage and then chose the other candidate. Meanwhile the electrical work was becoming sparse because of the state of our economy. Needless to say it was a very frustrating time and a time where I continually questioned God, though he always provided and a bill never went unpaid, even though there was a time when my wife was also laid off (and went less than a week without work).
About two weeks after I was eventually laid off by the electrician, I finally found full time employment working at a children’s home in Denver. I worked overnight shifts there for the first three months which gave me ample contemplative time. At first I was borderline cursing God for what he was putting me through, as if the “the church” was suffering by not having me as a pastor. Then I began to pray that God would provide contentment in my current position. I began to see the benefits of my current vocation. I was still able to minister to people, both the people I worked with and the children and adolescents in residence at the home. I was able to completely leave work when my shift ended, which meant I was able to enjoy the time that I had with my wife. I was able to spend a lot of time reading, which is something that I wasn’t able to do as a pastor….ironic.
Eventually though, working the night shift began to take it’s toll, but God provided by opening a position during the day, unfortunately it also included working a twelve hour shift on Sundays. My wife and I had just started attending a church that was pastored by a former colleague and friend. This had to go on hold. We tried to look for a church that met on Saturday evenings, but every Saturday evening service was held a very large church and we had grown tired of the produced feel of large church worship services, we really wanted a place to develop friendships and become involved. So for about four months we weren’t able to go to church. We began to pray that God would change my schedule in order to allow us to attend Christ Baptist where my friend was the pastor. In the middle of October, after about four months, God provided us with a change in my schedule where I now have Sundays off. But this is skipping forward quite a bit in time. Between March and October my wife changed jobs twice because of layoffs, God continued to provide. We put an offer in on a house in April and it took six months to close and we didn’t move in until the beginning of October and we had to live with my in-laws for four months after our lease expired on our apartment, again God provided.
So, how am I benefiting from this “ministry vacation”? More time with my wife, better time with my wife. God provided through full time employment both health insurance and the ability to provide a house. I have more time to read and to write. I have a hobby of working on my house, which I love. I have a church which my wife and I both love to attend and be involved in. As a side note, church planting and being newly married can be extremely rough together because both take an immense amount of time and usually time for one has to be sacrificed.