Who do you trust?

   I am a striver.  I am a classic American man, in that I can pull myself up by my boot straps and "get er done!"  I learned a long time ago that if I had been Moses leading the children of Israel to the Red Sea, and God had told me that He was going to part the sea, and we were going to walk across on dry land.  I would gather my army of hard workers, the strong men who had in slavery built the Egyptian pyramids, and I would start an enormous work project to dam the Red Sea.  We could do it!  We can "be the miracle" that God wants to do!  And throughout history the Jews would have been known as the people who got THEMSELVES out of Egypt, not the chosen race of God, the people He rescued from Egypt!

   This lesson hit home for me back when I was "jobless".  I had been unemployed for about three months, and had spent those three months chasing down every possible job I could find.  I mean I tried everything!  I even spent a weekend working at a Waffle House!  It had been a very intense and difficult three months.

   God and I were having a conversation out in the driveway about why He would lead me here, to a place where I could find no work or even a glimmer of hope for work.  "How are we supposed to pay the bills God?"  "What am I supposed to do God?"  I was willing to do anything.  But I couldn't even get a job as a baggage handler for an airline!  

   Then God spoke.

   First I had a vision; a memory flash threw my mind really.  It was a remembrance of the story of Harrison Ford.  I don't know if the story I had heard is whole truth, but that story was what I recalled.  

   Harrison Ford was a carpenter, and was building a set for a play in a theater where they were holding auditions for American Graffiti.  They needed someone to stand in for a reading, so they asked Harrison if he would read a part.  He did so well that they asked him to act in the movie.  And then began his life in Hollywood.

   I thought of that "story" and then I heard God say...  "That is what I will do for you."  And with that sentence I had an understanding that I just need to do what God tells me, and follow His leading and I will find not just a job, but the work I would love to do.  I knew that I needed to just stop, to stop all the pushing and striving and just trust Him.

   It was around this same time that God had brought me to a small little life changing verse in Psalms.  Psalm 37:8  ... "do not fret - it leads only to evil."  A simple sentence, but the implications the impact of that sentence is so so powerful!  I am a worrier.  And what I do when I fret, is I think, "Oh man, what am I going to do?"  "How can I make this one better?" "What do I have to do to fix this problem?"  Never do I think, "God help me." or "Father, how should I navigate this issue?" do I take my issues before the throne of my King? NO I think He’s not big enough to fix this... or won’t fix it the way I want Him to.  I do the great man thing which is to hunker down, and fix it.  All by my big-boy-self!  (its so funny how my now 4year old son uses this phrase so often and it always drives me crazy)  

   Well here I am, broke... no hope of work, miracle by miracle we are paying bills, but we needed to do something, and I had the great sacrificial thought. "Sell some of your instruments!"  I had a few guitars, and a mandolin and a violin; I can sell them to provide for my family.  So off to Craig’s List I go!  

   It was about three weeks later that I got a call about my violin.  A lovely lady named Terry contacted me to see if the violin would be good for her daughter.  We met and got into a wild long conversation, everything from God, to the church, to raising children in our world today.  In the middle of a great talk Terry stops me and asks me if I work on cars.  I have always considered myself a junior mechanic, love tinkering, and thought she was asking because she was having a problem with her car.  "Yes," I said, “why is there something wrong with your car?”  "No," "My husband is opening an automotive repair shop, and I think you are supposed to be his service manager." she replied.  Apparently during our conversation, God had been telling Terry to ask me if I worked on cars, she didn’t want to, thought it was crazy, but she did!  

   Now knowing how to change spark plugs and oil filters is very different than working in the automotive industry, so I laughed and said I thought she had the wrong guy.  But I agreed to meet her husband Darrell.  We talked for over three hours.  Everything from following God's will, to life as a Christian.  It was so exciting to meet someone who was opening a business because God told him to!  And the automotive shop he was opening sounded amazing.  A Christian owned and operated automotive repair shop, well I knew I wouldn’t get the job, but it was great to know of a place I could get my car worked on!  

   The snag for my employment was that the "service manager" position, is the only one that the corporate office has to interview for.  It’s an important role and they need to approve of the person hired to do that job... so I knew I wasn’t going to get the job.  I was so confident in my unqualified position that I showed up to the corporate interview in jeans and a bowling shirt on my motorcycle.

   Well after a nice long chat about how unqualified I was, the guy from corporate turns to Darrell and Terry and says... "I think we found our man, what do you guys think?"

   Today I am the service manager for a fully Christian owned and operated automotive repair shop.  I am having a blast.  I am helping people, spreading the gospel all day long, and working with three other wonderful Christian men!  I could have never imagined a job that would delight me so much!  I never would have thought of it!  I couldn’t have "strived" for this; I never even knew it existed!  

   God told me to wait, to listen to Him, and He brought me to this job.  He gave me employment, on His time frame and in a way that I still can’t believe!  I could have gotten work, I could have pushed though and "manned up" but God doesn’t seem to want independent loners, He wants sons and daughters who go on adventures with Him.

I am learning every day, how to listen, how to follow, how to be the man You want me to be.