This week the running count of 2026 tech layoffs crossed 120,000 jobs, and more than a dozen major companies finally said the quiet part out loud: AI is why. Microsoft let go of thousands the same stretch it was posting record numbers. Oracle told federal regulators, in plain language, that adopting AI “resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce.” TechCrunch has been keeping the running list, and it keeps getting longer.
Before I say anything else, my heart goes out to the people on the other side of those announcements.
What makes this land so hard isn’t only the lost paycheck. It’s how cold it feels. Many of these are companies that could well afford to keep their people and decided not to. That leaves good, faithful workers feeling used and unappreciated — especially when someone two desks over is having the best year of their career. One person is packing a box while another is celebrating a promotion. And it’s a short walk from there to a darker thought: Is God even watching? He’s clearly blessing them. Did He forget about me?
I want to speak straight to that thought, because I’ve learned not to trust it.
God is sovereign. He is not surprised by a single thing happening in your life right now — not the health scare, not the strain at home, not the layoff you never saw coming. None of it caught Him off guard, and none of it has thwarted His plan for you. If you are walking with Him, He is walking with you — one hundred percent — whether this feels like the valley of the shadow (Psalm 23:4) or the mountaintop with Jesus. Wherever you are this morning, you are right where you need to be, at the right moment, headed in the right direction.
If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) And if all things work together for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28), then all things means even this. Even the layoff. He can take a season you would never have chosen and use it to show you sides of His love you’d have never discovered from the comfort of the mountaintop. And when you really think about it, isn’t that the better gift? Not the title, not the security — His presence, active and near, in the actual middle of your life.
So if you got the news this week, hear me: if there is still breath in your lungs, His plan for you is not finished. Your story is not over because a company decided it was. Hang on. There is a new thing coming your way (Isaiah 43:19), and it is an invitation into a deeper knowing of who He is.
And if you’re a leader still holding the pen on these decisions, let this steady your hand: the people in your care are never line items. They bear His image (Genesis 1:27). Lead like it.
In Christ,
Chad