You may have noticed that we haven’t updated the website much in the last few weeks. I know I noticed. But the reason is actually a good one. I’ve started a new job.

It’s possibly one of the strangest jobs I’ve ever had. In the last week I have been spit on (in my eye -- twice), hit, kicked, had every obscenity in the book thrown at me, had actual BOOKS thrown at me, and I’ve cleaned both solid and liquid human waste in places where, well, it just simply shouldn’t be.

It isn’t at all what I expected at this time last year, when I was finishing up my education certification. Back then, I was in the middle of student teaching at a middle school and I was certain that God wanted me to finish my schooling, get a job teaching English, and it’d be smooth sailing. My wife and I would find a house or an apartment or something and we’d be able to start the next chapter in our life.

Then I turned the page to the next chapter and that wasn’t the way the story went. There were no teaching positions in my subject available in our area and suddenly all those things about the economy they were talking about on public radio and talk radio were a brutal reality. We moved in with my wife’s folks -- which was nice and I get along with my in-laws but which is just kind of a real humbling experience after being married and on our own for five years -- and we found ourselves cut off from our friends by such a silly little thing as distance. I looked for different kinds of jobs and was either overqualified or underqualified.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a very fun time in my life.

I mean, I was the MAN. I was supposed to provide for my family! I was the HUNTER! The one that was supposed to go out and conquer my prey, slinging its lifeless carcass over my shoulder and returning home as a HERO! And I couldn’t get a job at the local gorcery store. I found some part time jobs, but that wasn’t enough . . . oh, and the comics book work I was doing, well, while it satisfied that creative urge, let’s just say it didn’t pay any bills and leave it at that. (You know what I’m talking about, all you starving artist types.)

But I wasn’t the provider. I was a failure.

I was also quite mixed up.

Let’s look at my first mistake. “I was supposed to provide for my family.” There’s a fallacy if I ever saw one. The truth of it is, my family WAS provided for. We had a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs, clothes on our backs, and we were able to make every car payment and loan payments -- even though when we looked at our finances, it shouldn’t have worked. This was because of other people’s kindness and unexpected sources of income. It wasn’t anything I did. But we were provided for.

Let’s look at my second mistake. “I was a failure.” Well, in the world’s eyes, that may have been true. But in my son’s eyes, while I wasn’t perfect, he loved me anyway. Same with my daughter. And my wife. Yeah, it’s kind of their job to do that. But my wife had to keep reminding me that I wasn’t a failure because while I hadn’t found a job (and had actually turned down a couple) we were looking for God’s will and seeking his plan for us. And no, we did not make every decision a perfect one, but we were seeking God’s will. And while the situation was not what my wife and I would have chosen, we’ve learned some huge lessons along the way that we wouldn’t have learned if things would have just “gone our way”.

So some of the things with the Community Comics website have slowed down as we’ve been making a transition into the NEXT chapter. And the next chapter has me working in a place that I never thought I’d work -- working with kids, as I expected, and as a teacher (sort of), which I also expected, but not teaching them English or literature. I’m working as a youth treatment specialist, providing care for residential young children who have been abused and who have aggressively acted out against other people, causing them to be placed in our facility’s care. It isn’t what I expected, and yet it fits perfectly into what I have been prepared to do. God moves in mysterious ways.

Of course, working with these kids has only strengthened my motivation to continue working on comic books. In fact, I can’t wait to show them the Hero TV: The Mark -- when I wrote it months ago, I never imagined that I’d be working directly with some kids who could use a fun story about anger. (But I don’t want to give anything away.)

Ben

PS -- Next time I post, I’m going to talk about some of the best Christian comics you never read. Enough of this lame-o personal story stuff! Let’s get to comics!