Rough Day

Today I had a bad day at work. I was in meetings until around 2:30, which were fine. We even got lunch catered, which is always fun.

Then this afternoon I realized that I'd done something that potentially will cost one of my clients a couple thousand dollars in taxes. The situation was one that we run up against occasionally, when a company goes out of business and their 401(k) just sends them a check for 80% of their account balance (IRS requires a 20% tax withholding). In 99% of these cases, there's absolutely nothing we can do, so we basically just have to do damage control at that point. To make a long story short, she was in the 1% where we could have done something, we just found out too late. I did not do anything wrong, I did what anyone would have done. But because of her specific situation and a lot of bad timing, it's probably going to end up badly for her, and she's not going to be happy with me when I tell her, because all along we've been under the impression that we can fix what went wrong, so I've been reassuring her this whole time that things would turn out well, when it is looking like there's not going to be anything we can do.

I feel really terrible. Like, I cried in my car after work, haha. Ultimately, it's not my fault, there's nothing else I could have done, but I still feel bad for my client. (And if I'm being totally honest, I feel bad for myself because I'm pretty sure she's going to tear me up when I deliver the news.)

But it all means NOTHING compared to the crazy things that are happening in our world right now.  I've done some preliminary (read: not enough to formulate an intelligent and communicable opinion) research on ISIS and all that's happening in the Middle East. Also I've seen a few news segments on what's going on with Ferguson, MO. All of this in conjunction with America being scarred by Robin William's suicide just makes my heart hurt so badly. It's so easy to forget how important a human life is. Every person on the planet has an immortal soul. There are over 7,000,000,000 souls on earth. This life is short but the next will last forever. Every single soul is of unfathomable worth, so much so that if there were only one who ever sinned, Jesus Christ, God Himself, would come down and be nailed to a Cross so that that person could have eternal salvation.

My heart hurts for the victims of all of these tragedies, but it also hurts for the people who are committing these crimes. I know that God has a plan and uses EVERYTHING for the good of His people, but sometimes it's so difficult to see when it seems like people's hearts are so hardened. It's hard to see how good could come from all of this. But I have hope, and I trust the Lord.

St. James Foley, Martyr for the Faith, pray for us.