Here is an account where God shows himself in my life. He who started a good work in me is faithful to complete it, those words stick in my heart, and and they remind me that I joined Him in His work, and in me, He has started a good work, and He is faithful to bring it to completion. What does that mean to our every day? The drudgery of work that you need, but may not love, unless you are lucky. I had been laid off months earlier, and for maybe a half a year I searched for work. No lazy ass waiting for people to call me, doing the minimum just to collect unemployment, but really pounding the pavement, searching high and low, applying for anything that could have a remote chance of matching up with my skill set. I even was looking for places that didn’t list jobs yet, but maybe I could have a lunch with someone, hear about what they do, network, and possibly find a position I could fill that has not been posted yet.

No job opportunities were coming up, but I was able to be taken back by my previous employer at least part-time, which was better than nothing. Despite my wife having a full time job and I now had a part-time job, the school debt situation was growing. Unless something changed, we would be slaves to the loan forever, despite the lies the lenders told to my wife at the time there was no refinance at a lower rate possible, and we were not in a position with enough leverage to refinance anything to anywhere near the interest rate that would allow us to actually owe less each year.

After some time, it became clear that despite our best efforts, it would take a miracle for us to ever make headway on getting out of debt. Below I account my reaching out to God about this situation because I knew this is not what God wanted for us, and I knew He had plans for us, so this didn’t fit. I called out to Dad (God), probably much later than I should have, as I know He was just waiting for me to be ready to ask Him for help. The story starts after looking into college so I could get a diploma to look more appealing in the job market. I love to learn, but in this day and age, college is more of a tool to convince corporations that you are worth employing, not to learn (unless you are wealthy in one way or another), and I have accepted this.

2011-08-08 – Passed the WGU readiness assessment – Aug 8, 2011, 11:13 PM – Around this time I started to feel uneasy about this direction, a feeling in my gut, knowing how little I know about all of the branching timelines. I know that any of the many decisions and actions I could take could lead to so many different outcomes, but I don’t get to see that, I don’t have the view into the future, or the mind to simulate it, I just know that anything is possible from where I stand, from my limited view, and I know that God knows all the possibilities, and He can pull many strings along any path. After thinking about it for a bit, I decided I need to bring this to God, talk to Him and ask Him for direction. I don’t want to shoot off on my own path with such blindness about its outcomes. I need to give Him a window for Him to help here, and after that window of time, if nothing comes up, I will go forward in my best effort, my best guess with all that I know, and move forward with college, and all the baggage and cost that comes with it, not related to the needs of my wife and I. Asking God for help, and giving room for Him to do what He will do, is in alignment with my best effort and best that I can do in my decision making. I talked to God about the situation, my plans, how I felt, my faith that He can and will help if He has a better path for me at this time, and I gave Him 3 months to show me an alternative path, and then if nothing comes up, I will move forward with college. I don’t recall exactly when in this period I prayed, but I would believe sometime in this 21 day window (Aug 08-29). If I recall correctly, it seemed like being contacted about positions started around the next week after praying, so likely I prayed some time around Aug 21-28 . I did not start searching for work after this prayer, and it seemed like even before I could figure out what I should do in this 3 month window I gave God, I started getting real people reaching out to initiate interviews.
2011-08-29 (Mon, Aug 29, 2011, 4:32 PM) – Tom reached out about a position that might fit for me, because some time in the past I was looking for work, and had applied to something.
2011-09-07 – Tom arranges a call with James for a position interview, which doesn’t work out.
2011-09-08 – Tom knows another recruiter (Larry) and sent my resume off to him just in case I would work for a position that he was trying to fill. Larry reaches out with an opening at his company and I state I am interested and officially apply. A call is scheduled with Larry the next day (Friday Sep 9th).
2011-09-09 – Call with Larry goes well.
2011-09-14 – Larry emails that a hiring manager wants to do a phone screen Friday (Sep 16th)
2011-09-16 – The interview goes well, and I am given a coding challenge
2011-10-05 – After a lot of back and forth, and several interviews with the wider team, I had a one-on-one interview in person with my new boss who flew into town for the final interview. Everything went well and I was notified that
2011-10-07 – They sent me an official offer, which I accepted. They ended up giving me more than my original asking wages, which seemed unheard of. To me this seemed very much a God thing, all of this did.
2011-10-24 – I started my first day of work, with a new MacBook Pro sitting on my desk, which was a blessing in disguise. I had never used MacOS in any professional workflow situation, however, once I got used to it, I never looked back as it does not even compare to Windows, and it is based on FreeBSD which is a really good Unix foundation.

God answered my prayers, as He always answers and acts in one way or another when someone prays, even if we don’t get to see it, or don’t recognize it. This solved our financial issues and was a pivotal turning point in our lives. It opened up doors that we could not have imagined. Its not the job, its God, and I have to always remember that. This job can come and go, but God has started a good work in me, and He is faithful to complete it, no matter how the provision comes. A random box of food that a family friend didn’t know what to do with when we discussed a tight situation and that we didn’t like eating dandelions, a replacement car when I prayed for God to fix my Jeep, and so many other stories. By my life’s evidence, my personal experience, God does what ever it takes to provide for His will, and I am a part of that now.

Now for a bit of a rant that brought me here to write this account down, though I have meant to do this for some time. Details excluded, but the basic situation as I saw it was that if this is God’s work and we are joining Him in it, He will provide, period. In my perspective, no provision is a sign that it should be wrapped up and we should look elsewhere to join Him where He is working now, as this is no longer in alignment with His work, but now it is our work and we are trying to get Him to stamp His name on it.

He is not a king that enslaves people, brings them into his realm, just so they can do his work for him. He is the good King who leads, starts His good work and asks others to join, standing in front, inviting us to join Him in His work, and learn what it is, why He is doing it, how to do it, so we can share in His joy. This is His story, and it includes us, and He wants us to join Him in His story, His work. We are not an ant farm, where He just shoved us in this cage to see what we do over time. He did not get bored one day and decide to create life for no reason, without a plan, without a goal, without a story ending, without meaning. He knows why He created us, He knows what He is doing, He knows His plan, He has a purpose, He has a goal, and He knows the ending to His story, it involves us, and we are to be a part of His story. We are children, toddlers, bobbling around, with too much confidence, too occupied with our own ideas, or the ideas from others around us. We need a Father. He is not done raising us, and we are to ask our Dad to show us His business, His trade, and ask Him to lead us into the next training, the next task, asking for direction and correction when we get carried away getting off track. If we are joining Him in His work, training in the tasks He is working on, joining Him, everything will be provided, nothing will be lacking. What good is a father that does not train his children for the tasks they are to do? In that training, what good would a father be if he did not give his children what they needed to continue to train in the task that he is giving them, let alone the task that he is doing himself with his children. It would not make sense. But God is the good Father, and the good Teacher, and He will provide what we need when working with Him, when joining Him in His work. Knowing this, what are we to take away from this situation we are in? Why are we pleading for Him to give us what we need in this work? Does the good Father, the good Teacher expect us to scream, cry, wail, and slash ourselves, or expect us to suffer as we are joining Him in His work? No, I can’t even imagine Dad requiring or expecting that of us. His work will never fail! If we are joining Him in His work, then this could not be the case. I don’t fully recall the exact wording, but on one time recently I heard this; “How would we differentiate ourselves from any other organization doing the same thing?”. This rings in my head even now. Is that Dad’s work? When joining Dad in His work, does He really want His children to make sure they differentiate themselves from others doing the same thing? I wouldn’t sign up for an effort to differentiate an organization from others doing the same thing, I would join to help Dad’s other children, His younger more vulnerable children, those that need to know Dad is looking out for them, that Dad loves them, and that Dad has some awesome work for them to join Him in, and it will give their lives the meaning that Dad intended from the beginning. Dare I say, doing this for His younger more vulnerable children is Dad’s work! I want to let Dad’s fellow children know the good news, a life with meaning, full of love, where He takes care of everything else directly and through others, and He just wants us to join Him in His joy, His work… I don’t know what to say about the statement “How would we differentiate ourselves from any other organization doing the same thing?”. At some point the original mission was lost and a new one took its place, and that mission was rent and payroll, and nothing else was left but suffering to make ends meet.

Verses that come to mind. God talking to Cain (Genesis 4:6-7 MSG), though I think it would be a little more clear if we were to witness it ourselves, I feel the premise is still there: “Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you, you’ve got to master it.”. Jesus inviting us to join Him in His work, but with emphasis that the burden is easy and the load is light, and religion representing the man made value systems that are used for the rat race at that time, to weigh down people and exclude them because they are not good enough, don’t measure up, or the required load is too much (Matthew 11:28–30 MSG): “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”. This one is where Elijah puts the false premises and a false god to the test, following as God directed him, and shows how a prayer and following God’s plan and work will result in God’s will being done, unlike all the wailing, self inflicted suffering, and show the false profits did to try and convince their god to do their will (1 Kings 18:16-39, too much to quote).