30 August 2009

My Own Personal Miracle



I have had the awesome experience of seeing God work a miracle in my life right in front of me. I got to see His fingerprints in my life just as it was occurring.

After my company announced reorganization in February of this year, I knew from then on that my head was on the chopping block. Then, On May 5th, I received the fatal news that I was to be laid off. The company was gracious to give me 60 days to try to find another job in the company if I qualified.

My manager did an extraordinary job of trying to find another account I could work with that utilized my skill set, but my only prayer at that point was to follow after God’s will. If His will involved me staying at the same company, then I asked him to open the necessary doors. However, time and again, every time my manager thought he had something in the works for me, all those doors closed.

I was literally frozen in place, as it had been 16 years since I had to actually look for another job. I felt woefully unprepared in how to set out on this journey, so I placed all my trust in God, as I knew in my heart that He would ultimately provide for me in His time.

Well, the 60-day grace period was fast coming to an end. I had a personal friend (not a co-worker) that had worked for this company for 30 years and I let her know what my situation was. Within one week, she contacted me and told me that her department had just authorized two new positions. She felt as if I had the proper skill set and encouraged me to post for it. When I read the description online, while I did meet the necessary qualifications, it was in an area far from my expertise, but what did I have to lose. With only one week left on the payroll, I took the chance and posted for the job. In two days, that hiring manager called to indicate that he wanted to interview me as he just completed reading my résumé. He also told me that time was of the essence as he was leaving to go out of town the next day and wouldn’t be coming back until after I was off of the payroll.

As these 60 days drew to a close, I told God that if it was His will to have me leave this company (and therefore becoming unemployed and knowing that I would lose my house and everything), I was willing to be obedient to Him as I knew I was not walking down this road alone. The idea of losing everything that I had was a scary thought, but the lesson God was trying to teach me with this experience was learning what it meant to truly trust and rely on Him for everything. I looked at the supreme example taught me in the Bible where God sacrificed everything by losing His Son so that we would gain eternal salvation. Look how that situation turned out. Jesus, in losing everything, gained even more in return. Jesus gave up His life for me so that I could receive that ultimate gift of forgiveness. How could I do anything less?

With three days left to go, the hiring manager extended that job offer to me and I was able to seamlessly move from one position to the next with no loss of pay. They say that God’s timing is always perfect, but, in my eyes, He was really cutting it close! I know in my heart that God orchestrated everything and again proved just how much He loved me by standing on His promise to be by my side always.

Most of my co-workers debunked my beliefs throughout this ordeal, but my faith steadfastly stood ground. I finally knew what it meant to trust in God and that was never more evident to me by the events that ensued from the day I was laid off., and by the gift of Him giving me a peace that passed all understanding, even if it meant that I would become homeless.

He honored my prayer in requesting only that I abide by His will: to stay with that company, or to lose this job and start from scratch. This particular door was suddenly opened for me and the end result was receiving a new job with exactly the same salary and working conditions, although it meant that I had a horde of new responsibilities and areas for which had to be trained.

Well, I have been in this new job for two months now. This new job is quite overwhelming to me as there is a host of responsibilities that I have to learn. While the learning curve is quite high and that the bar has been set for some pretty spectacular expectations; however, the bottom line is that I still trust God. He blessed me with this opportunity and I have to believe that He will equip me to perform this job in order to give me an incredible testimony of God’s power in my life.

It is now my hope that God will use me to comfort those who are currently walking in my shoes. While I have never been quite so comfortable preaching to someone about how God can change lives, I can, however, speak from my heart and tell of a wonderful experience I received directly from God. People can argue all day long about religious dogma and theological positions, but no one can take away my first-hand experience of revealing how God touched me in a very real and personal way.

Are you facing a job loss? Do you feel that the entire world is against you? Are you in absolute fear of losing everything? Trust me when I tell you that this doesn’t have to be the case. Whether you believe in God or not, I know in my heart for a fact that He performed my own personal miracle. My views on God’s presence in my life was forever altered by this journey–one I am hoping God will use to allow me to share my story.©2009

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