If someone told me this would
happen or was happening, I’d have been surprised. Actually, I didn’t connect
the dots until decades later. I didn’t see the pattern because so much time passed from
beginning to completion. And it’s something I hadn’t actually asked for but was and is still one of the highlights of my life.
I was let go from a job with
13 years seniority. In shock I went home and checked my bank account and applied
for unemployment insurance, then found a temporary part-time job at night for an air freight
company through a business contact and joined a temp firm placing me in
short-term jobs.
I expected a rebound of all
my old worries and fears, of feeling rejected. I guess my head was too busy
figuring out working anywhere, night and day; worry never really paralyzed me
as it used to. On thinking back to the beginning of this latest crisis, I
realized why my spiritual backbone was strong enough to corral any stray
thoughts and keep me focused. God was preparing me for a future I never dared dream of.
A couple of months earlier I
had bonded together with 3 or 4 other Christians in this fairly worldly, if not
corrupt, company--from corporate officers to warehouse clerks--and we began
having weekly meetings, fasting through that lunch period, spending it in
prayer for this company and its many employees whose lives showed no evidence
of spiritual awareness. Our group had grown to about a dozen every week—and
suddenly I was no more a part of it!
That day the only 2 office
workers laid off were over 50 and had seniority in length of service benefits
(extra vacations and profit-sharing, etc.) and in this situation I realized many
people in my place would have sued. But I felt restrained in my heart from
returning bad feelings with the same. I just got busy seeking a future. With no
justification and no clue at God’s reasons for allowing this to interrupt my
even-keel status: my girls were now married, I had a little money in the bank and no financial
crisis for several years now; yet I never doubted that He had allowed this—interruption. And a few months later, when I became a permanent employee at His planned destination (Abbott Laboratories) my bank account was identical to the day I was pushed out of my crowded, uncomfortable but safe (I thought) nest!
Some 40 years later, I could
see the pattern and forethought woven to provide and is still providing for me, some 25 years after retiring,/ Over the years I have marveled at Bible stories about Abraham waiting so long to have a family, how long Noah labored to build an ark of safety from a fate the word had never seen before, how long Moses and the Israelites wandered the desert, 40 years. I learned God plans ahead--way ahead!
You see, I never voluntarily left a job, never risked a sure
thing for a chance at something better. My first job went away when the G.I.
Bill for veterans’ education expired. I left the next job when I married and moved out of town, the
next when a baby was on the way. It
dawned on me: I would have stayed put in that job and missed many blessings.
After waiting on God,
enduring about 3 months of long hours at temp and part-time jobs, I joined a major company where each employee received fair treatment, respect, advancement and
found many friends at all levels of the company and later in the retiree club.
Pension at the new job was more than twice that of the former one, plus stock
plan contributions from the company and continued relationships throughout
retirement years.
I’d never have set my sights
on the quality of employer God was preparing me for; He knew this about me.
