Letting Go and Getting More

This is from my sister Lisa in Colorado, who had a great experience with trusting God.

I would like to share with you what I feel to be a much needed healing of “self worth”. I was recently blessed with a new job after great angst over taking what seemed to be most cavernous leap of faith. This decision to seriously make a job change seemed incredibly difficult for me as I had been in the same position for approximately 11 years. For years I felt that I had very few options available to me due largely to the fact that I did not have a college degree and I was not keen on beginning at the bottom. Because of this I had an overwhelming feeling of entrapment and dread at enduring a very unhappy future with my current employer as it became all to clear in recent history that our previous good relationship had deteriorated.

I began to reflect on the thought that I deserved good and that I had great things offer – surely there were employers that regarded experience above a degree. I began to turn my thought to listening for God’s guidance and direction. I was comforted by a feeling that leaving a position that I was very unhappy with, would be best for all concerned.

And then things began to move quickly for me. I felt comfortable sharing in a casual conversation with a respected colleague that I was interested in pursuing other job opportunities and of course all the reasons why I felt that this was going to be a very difficult endeavor. She shared with me that changes were occurring within her company and that she felt that I would be a good candidate for a management position. Upon this information, I contacted the president of her company to express my interest and we had a phone interview right there and I was invited to see the offices the following weekend. Of course I took her up on that offer and in our meeting she made me a formal offer and I accepted. Coincidently, I had known this woman professionally for 10 + years.

What was most astounding and what I was unaware of until I accepted the offer, was the fact that this woman had contacted my prior immediate employers to let them know she was going to offer me a position and that they should do something if they intended on keeping me. In reaching out this way, this women accomplished several things. She showed great respect to my prior employers and GREAT value for me, as well as eliminating the dread I felt at confronting the inevitable resignation meeting. And because of this, all doubt and fear was erased and my transition out and the training of others was relatively painless. All of which, I am truly grateful for.

(Ed. comment - Very inspiring, Lisa!)

Always in Our Right Place

This weekend my wife and I took my son to a Segway human transporter class at the St. Louis Science Center. About a mile from the science center, the car ran out of gas. Becaue I like to play practical jokes, my son, Peter, thought I was joking around. It wasn't a joke (this time). We rolled as far as we could and Peter and his mom had to walk the rest of the way. I called a tow truck to bring some gas. However, I wanted to be with Peter to see him on this amazing transportation device. (It is an ingenious device that balances itself on one axle using computers and gyros.) The class was about to start and the tow truck was still en route. I decided to listen to God and I heard that we are always in our right place at all times.

I love that simple spiritual fact. What? Iis such a thing as always being in your right place possible? When we consider that God-good is the only Cause and the only Creator, that He is omnipresent (everywhere at the same time) and that we are truly spiritual reflections of this grand Creator, such a thing is possible.

On one-hand, humanly I was not where I longed to be and felt that I should be. But, I refused to listen to anything that said I was separated from my right place and listened to God. I reasoned that according to God, I was always in my right place. And, that my true location was with God, not in a car without gas away from my wife and son.

I felt this simple unlabored peace, this God bestowed trust that I was in my right place. I did not outline that all would be well when the tow truck came. I felt and knew that in reality, spiritually, everything was already well. My thought had yielded to the Christ, and the result was peace, trust, and comfort. Not surprisingly, as I finished my prayer, the tow truck arrived and gave me fuel. I drove to the science center and was able to see the smile on my son's face as he piloted his Segway around.

I didn't miss out on any good that evening. Quite the opposite. I learned again that scientifically we are always in our right place.