Wednesday 31 October 2007

bad days

Everybody has them. I've had a few in the years gone by. The other day was one of them. Nothing really bad happened, I guess it was just a day that I didn't particularly enjoy. For starters, at work I was super busy and the busyness had come really suddenly too. Only a week ago I was twiddling my thumbs looking for work to do and then BAM! reports as far as the eye can see, early mornings, late finishes, heaps of stuff that needed to be done yesterday, not enough people to do it all, files being handed over to me, diary filling up fast, paperwork piles getting higher and hogher, in-tray getting fuller and fuller, running from appointment to appointment (getting lost along the way) producing yet even more work... and then going home worrying about all the stuff that should've been done.

To top it all off, when I eventually got home I found a letter addressed to me from the Tax Office. Thinking it was my cheque for the $36 dollars promised to me when I submitted my e-tax, I opened it. Inside was a piece of paper with a line printed in bold at the bottom that read 'Amount Due: $10418' - I am dead serious. And no, I didn't leave any decimal points out.

You could appreciate that I was quite perplexed as to how this may have happened. And to come home to something like this after a long day at work, you could imagine that I didn't quite see the humour of the situation (I do now =D).

The stress of it all kinda took it's toll on me as I ended up in bed at 9pm that night feeling stressed and emotional. I kept thinking of what I needed to do and I just felt absolutely overwhelmed. There was just so much that needed to be done. I prayed asking God to give me the strength to get through this all, knowing that He was the only One who could help me out. And as I opened my eyes again, immediately, the suffocating feeling of anxiety left me and I felt relaxed. I was then able to have a good sleep and gain the energy to battle it out the next day. By His grace, I got through a fair amount of work and I have also been able to sort out my little issue at the Tax Office.

I called Tax up after work and after 40 minutes of being told my call had progressed in the queue and being thanked for my patience, I finally got to talk to a friendly guy named Tim. This guy told me that I had stated my income twice on my e-tax and I had also done my medicare thing wrong too. He dictated to me a letter that I needed to write to fix the problem and told me that everything should be alright after that. What a relief. Who knows, after all of this, the Tax Office - if God moves their heart to be generous - may even want to give me some of my tax money back! :D

Well, work is still crazy, but I do feel more in control of everything. It's gonna be a tough few weeks coming up, but I do enjoy being busy (to a point). I have even come to enjoy the times spent at the office alone - everything is so quiet and I can actually concentrate (there's no one that I can gasbag to).

In the end, I am thankful that I can find strength in the most powerful One of all - and that this One, my Lord and God, loves me so much and cares for me more than anyone on earth (even my family!) ever could. There's so much comfort in knowing that.

2 comments:

april*showers`33 said...

hey rowas! im with u on the tax thingy. last yr, i received a letter notifying me that i owed them around 10k too! :S and just when i thought i was going to get a $45 rebate. yea that was a pretty stressed out period for me too cos i was in the US at that time and i had to make a loooong (and expensive) overseas call to them. thank God i got hold of a friendly guy too (it might've been the same guy too haha) n he told me to write a letter explaining my mistake. yup so i did i had to do (and pray of cos) and i got my $45 6 months later! (i didn't really care abt the $45; i just didn't wana owe em 10k!) haha wad a saga. i was so happy and thankful cos i was so confused abt everything, with all the tax terms n all. so yup, im sure ur situation will work out fine. guess this whole episode just told me to lean on God more! if you can't handle the tax stuff, God can! :D

small steps to glory said...

MAN! that is so weird.. it's the exact same situation! hehe yeah, I'm sure it will work out fine too. I was more stressed about work hey, but that was like the icing on top of the cake (a yukky cake albeit hehe). But all is fairly good now :D

Wednesday 31 October 2007

bad days

Everybody has them. I've had a few in the years gone by. The other day was one of them. Nothing really bad happened, I guess it was just a day that I didn't particularly enjoy. For starters, at work I was super busy and the busyness had come really suddenly too. Only a week ago I was twiddling my thumbs looking for work to do and then BAM! reports as far as the eye can see, early mornings, late finishes, heaps of stuff that needed to be done yesterday, not enough people to do it all, files being handed over to me, diary filling up fast, paperwork piles getting higher and hogher, in-tray getting fuller and fuller, running from appointment to appointment (getting lost along the way) producing yet even more work... and then going home worrying about all the stuff that should've been done.

To top it all off, when I eventually got home I found a letter addressed to me from the Tax Office. Thinking it was my cheque for the $36 dollars promised to me when I submitted my e-tax, I opened it. Inside was a piece of paper with a line printed in bold at the bottom that read 'Amount Due: $10418' - I am dead serious. And no, I didn't leave any decimal points out.

You could appreciate that I was quite perplexed as to how this may have happened. And to come home to something like this after a long day at work, you could imagine that I didn't quite see the humour of the situation (I do now =D).

The stress of it all kinda took it's toll on me as I ended up in bed at 9pm that night feeling stressed and emotional. I kept thinking of what I needed to do and I just felt absolutely overwhelmed. There was just so much that needed to be done. I prayed asking God to give me the strength to get through this all, knowing that He was the only One who could help me out. And as I opened my eyes again, immediately, the suffocating feeling of anxiety left me and I felt relaxed. I was then able to have a good sleep and gain the energy to battle it out the next day. By His grace, I got through a fair amount of work and I have also been able to sort out my little issue at the Tax Office.

I called Tax up after work and after 40 minutes of being told my call had progressed in the queue and being thanked for my patience, I finally got to talk to a friendly guy named Tim. This guy told me that I had stated my income twice on my e-tax and I had also done my medicare thing wrong too. He dictated to me a letter that I needed to write to fix the problem and told me that everything should be alright after that. What a relief. Who knows, after all of this, the Tax Office - if God moves their heart to be generous - may even want to give me some of my tax money back! :D

Well, work is still crazy, but I do feel more in control of everything. It's gonna be a tough few weeks coming up, but I do enjoy being busy (to a point). I have even come to enjoy the times spent at the office alone - everything is so quiet and I can actually concentrate (there's no one that I can gasbag to).

In the end, I am thankful that I can find strength in the most powerful One of all - and that this One, my Lord and God, loves me so much and cares for me more than anyone on earth (even my family!) ever could. There's so much comfort in knowing that.

2 comments:

april*showers`33 said...

hey rowas! im with u on the tax thingy. last yr, i received a letter notifying me that i owed them around 10k too! :S and just when i thought i was going to get a $45 rebate. yea that was a pretty stressed out period for me too cos i was in the US at that time and i had to make a loooong (and expensive) overseas call to them. thank God i got hold of a friendly guy too (it might've been the same guy too haha) n he told me to write a letter explaining my mistake. yup so i did i had to do (and pray of cos) and i got my $45 6 months later! (i didn't really care abt the $45; i just didn't wana owe em 10k!) haha wad a saga. i was so happy and thankful cos i was so confused abt everything, with all the tax terms n all. so yup, im sure ur situation will work out fine. guess this whole episode just told me to lean on God more! if you can't handle the tax stuff, God can! :D

small steps to glory said...

MAN! that is so weird.. it's the exact same situation! hehe yeah, I'm sure it will work out fine too. I was more stressed about work hey, but that was like the icing on top of the cake (a yukky cake albeit hehe). But all is fairly good now :D